Rise of the Night
by FlameFireheart
Summary: For a long while now Lea has known she was different, that she was something that she couldn't describe, and when a strange boy named Nico shows up at her school she learned things about herself that she never would have dreamed of.
1. Chapter 1 I blow Up the Ice Cream Woman

1 I Blow Up the Ice Cream Woman

_Brriiiing_

I took a deep breath and pulled down the door handle. Maybe this year would be different, maybe I wouldn't be expelled for the seventh time in eight years, and maybe I could break a personal record. Not likely, but maybe. Never really fitting in didn't help the fact, but this year I wouldn't need friends, my step-dad had said if you make it past sixth and seventh then maybe life will be easy. I think he meant grades in school, but he never really specified.

I shoved open the door; my first look at the classroom ruined my hopes for all of those maybes.

I hoped I had walked into the wrong classroom; maybe it was a sixth grade room, because it looked more like a kindergarten classroom. Picture-books lined the shelves, and pretty little pastel flower cutouts grew from the window sill. The desks made little clusters on the rainbow carpet floor. It looked like a unicorn had puked up on the place; seriously, there was even a toy bin. I was just about to turn around and walk out of the daycare center, when a cheery voice called "Are you lost dear?" I was considering ignoring her but, even if this wasn't right classroom maybe she could show me where to go. I turned around and smiled as pleasantly as I could.

"Where might I find room fifteen Ms. Valden's room?" I asked. Silently trying to decipher one of those cheery posters, with happy little sayings. It looked like it said _If hall elves fail, give them detentions_. I honestly didn't think that I even got close. Usually I was pretty good at reading but dyslexia shredded words especially one in bright colors, and just my luck the poster was written in neon green. I later figured out that it said "_If all else fails, read the directions",_ I didn't like the hint of sarcasm tucked into the saying. It suggested that people won't read the directions in the first place, which is the right thing to do, even I knew that.

"Dear, you're in the right place. I'm Ms. Valden. What's your name?" she asked reaching out to shake my hand.

I quickly shook her hand and let go, "I'm Lea."

"Hmmm. I wonder if they messed up on your schedule, because you seem a lot..." she paused to think for a second "Sharper. Than the other students I work with."

Like I hadn't heard that one before, either she was trying to build up my self-esteem or she had some seriously dumb students. I knew how to respond to this, I knew keeping my dyslexia and ADHD a secret didn't work well, I'd tried it before. I don't think that you could fit the number of times I had been called stupid on a normal calculator.

Other kids began filing in, at first it seemed some what normal, until class began. Ms. Valden clapped her hands twice paused and then clapped three more times. The class repeated the action, I didn't. I want to be able to say that the last time I did that was fourth grade.

Also, the reaction was just sad. Some kids were overjoyed at the fact that they could make noises with there hands and started clapping really fast while staring in awe at there hands and laughing giddily. Worst of all one kid had trouble understanding the concept of clapping and looked down at his hands, confused. I felt like jumping out of the garden scene window and taking one the smiley butterfly's with me.

"Okay, children. Today we are going to be coloring our name tags, they're on your desk, make sure you color the one with your name on it and not someone else's." She smiled a grin way too big for her face, as if somebody was pulling her cheeks back with tape, and she began to pass out boxes of crayons. Crayons? Seriously? So much for feeling like an eighth grader, I bet if I asked her for some colored pencils she would say "No, no, no way to sharp." That meant sharpies were out of the question.

Next to me at a boy who seemed to be either deaf or really oblivious. He stared up at the ceiling fan fascinated by the blades as the spun slower than a broken amusement park ride. The girl diagonally across from me had strawberry blond curls and when she got her crayons she began to just angrily break them in half. I wonder what she would break once she was finished with those twenty-four crayons. Across from me black haired boy was doing the same thing as me staring at the creepy crayon breaking girl. He shook his head and muttered to himself "Percy said I would like school. Wow. He was so wrong."

At least someone felt the same way as me. Something pelted me in the back of the head; I turned around to see a blond boy making airplane noises as he flung his crayons around the room. I muttered "Dude," and sighed dramatically.

I figured I would just have to ignore everyone around me. I began to sketch deep pink and purple poppies and lotuses. Our names were already printed on the small 4'' by 8'' cards. Usually I would have figured it was because of the student having handwriting to sloppy to read, I now guessed it was because some of the students didn't know how to spell their names or maybe even what there names are. After about an hour I finished, about eight different flowers, all either red, pink, purple, or magenta, my favorite colors, with yellow streaks on there petals, I filled in a dark blue backgrounds. By that time I had reduced the crayons to nubs or wax dust. I heard a quiet "Whoa." From across the table the black haired boy gaped at my name tag. His wasn't half bad either just a bit, odd. His was black with a bunch of skulls, and two torches illuminating his name, Nico, in green light. I had no idea why the fire was colored green instead of the normal, red, orange, or yellow. Then he looked at me and his eyebrows rose. He said "Why are you in this class?"

I gave him a disgusted look and "I'm ADHD and Dyslexic. What about you?"

"Same," He said and stared at me as if I had just shoved a crayon up strawberry curls girl's nose. The bell rang and Ms. Valden announced "Lunch time." Luckily everyone knew what that was.

I headed strait for the black top, it was partially shaded by a huge gym where kids got there lunch, and also had trees on the other side that worked as a small barrier to the field which was reserved for the football players. I chose a picnic table in the shade and pulled out a huge bag of Sour Patch Kids. I lived off the little gummies. Sugar actually calms my brain, not hyper-activate it.

I sat there at the table thinking of that guy Nico; he acted as if he knew something about me that I didn't. Before I could get up the courage to ask him I felt a hand on my shoulder a voice washed with false concern rang out over the black-top. "OMG! I think year head is bleeding!"

I whipped around to see a girl in heels way to high to be even a little comfortable, what I like to call Fascinations, 'Foot-Assassinations', and a skin tight neon yellow tube-dress that just barely covered the girl's butt. A word that I'm not allowed to say flashed through my head. Oh, and if your wondering, no my head wasn't bleeding, but if the girl kept talking to me like that, she'd be the one bleeding. She was only referring to the dark pink streaks in my hair. She sniggered evilly but I just turned around and pulled out my sketch pad and began drawing scenes from my last night's nightmare.

It began with a cloaked woman, the cloak was coated in little glowing lights like stars.. Her black cape whipping in the wind. I couldn't see her eyes because they too, were covered in the black veil. All I could see of her face was a creepy, toothy grin; her skin, it looked really prehistoric and youthful at the same time which scared me. She was a single man's worst nightmare and mine too. Her laugh shook the hillside, and the night sky began to fall slowly crushing me, as if the sky was eating me alive. I would take one last look at the stars twinkling above and every thing would go black. I never dreamed past that. I always woke up all hot and feverish and now days the dreams came every night each time becoming clearer and detailed. The more I dreamed it the faster the sky fell, one day it would just swallow me in a split second, it was as if every time it swallowed me, it got stronger and waited for the next time to swallow me.

I don't know exactly why I drew it but to me, it helped, it seemed like every time I drew in one more detail that I remembered, another would appear, just like another piece to the puzzle. I began to sketch in the miniscule lights that were embroidered on the black veil. From behind me the girl said "Hey loser, are you gonna fight back or are you just going to accept how lame you are."

I didn't bother turning around, all this girl wanted was attention but I did say "You're not worth my time."

She scoffed and laughed lightly "No you're lucky I wasted my time even noticing you." And she walked her heels clicking the whole way, back to her friends.

The rest of the school day went on peacefully; in Ms. Valden's class we finished our names tags. The boy, Nico, had obviously ditched because he was absent for the rest of the day. Nothing much happened; I just wasted the next three hours drawing the little stars, on my now extremely detailed drawing of the veiled woman. My mom picked me up from school in my step-dad's little Toyota, sparkly black, yep that's about as manly as my step-dad gets. She did the usual "How was your first day of school?"

I just stared out the car window, and waited to get home. It was only about a fifteen minute drive. My mom understood that I felt like a freak, and I didn't want to bother her with the fact that school was going to be torture this year. She was already too busy with her full time job. My family wasn't very close, so conversations were brief and true feelings were never expressed. I'd rather have it that way; I'm a good kid with bad luck.

When we got to our house, a large pale blue two story with a huge backyard, I slung my messenger bag back pack over my shoulder and walked slowly inside as my mom rushed past, talking about new houses foreclosing, to her boss. If you couldn't guess, my mom's a real-estate agent and my dad owns a publishing firm, so we're not limited on money, but time seems to be the only thing we can't buy. When I walked into the kitchen my dad looked up at me and asked "How was it? Did the special class seem different?"

"Yeah, I think it's a Special Ed. Class." I said looking at the binder's had brought to school that if everyday was like today, would become art portfolios.

"What do you mean?" he asked. He did seem concerned. I liked my step-dad he was better than most dad's. We did have a good father-daughter relationship. I was actually more comfortable talking to him than my mom. He was cool, with his casual clothes, and dark brown hair, that made him have a sporty but professional look. He gave me a pitiful look.

"I'm in with people who can't even spell there own names, instead of being the freak because of disabilities, I'm now a freak because of how minor they are." I sighed.

My step-dad, Henry, brushed his hand through his hair and was about to say something when he was interrupted. In the distance I could hear the delightful music of an Ice Cream Truck blaring through a megaphone. Henry smiled and pulled out his wallet "Nothing a little ice cream can't solve." He handed me five bucks and I rushed out the door. I spotted the tiny little stars and stripes truck coming down the street and walked to the side walk. When it got to me, the woman sitting in the front seat asked "Well what would you like sweetie?"

I looked at the different sticker's that made up the menu. I decided to go simple with a scoop of mint chip ice cream. She smiled a toothy grin and disappeared for a second. Then she leaned out the window and held out the ice cream. I fumbled for the five dollar bill in the back of my hot pink Jean's pocket. I was just about to hand it to her when I looked at the ice cream. It was steaming and half melted. I watched in awe as it slowly dripped onto the pavement soon it was nothing but bubbling mint milk. I looked up at the woman. Her face had twisted into a hideous smile, sharp stubby teeth, and her eyes glowed like cinders. "Isss there sssomething wrong ssweetie?" I gaped at her. She cackled evilly and dropped the ice cream onto the pavement where it began to eat away at the pavement like acid. "Ohh, ssso you can sssee me in my true form?"

A shriek escaped my lips and I stumbled backwards landing on the wet lawn. I scrambled back. The demon lady ripped the door off the truck. She stepped onto the pavement, no slithered, onto the pavement. Her lower half was like that of a snake but it was huge as if she was wearing giant snake skin over her legs. Her hair had little bits of fire in it, illuminating her ugly, gnarled face. Suddenly from behind me an arrow flew past. If lodged itself into her shoulder. She looked at it and pulled it out more aggravated than wounded.

"Catch" I heard. From behind me, I whipped around and my arm flung out automatically and caught a long bronze knife. I don't know how I caught it but it was instinctual. I heard a hiss, and when I turned back around the demon was almost on top of me, she loomed over me casting a shadow onto my face. She had to be at least ten feet tall. I closed my eyes and my arm thrust forward, when I opened my eyes again the demon lady was disinagrating right in front of me. I had stabbed her in the stomach, with out even trying. I dropped the bronze knife and took a deep breath.

From behind me Henry's voice called out "Lea, are you alright?" If being attacked by a demon she-monster was his idea of alright, then yes. He came up behind me and gave me a hand up. The second my vision cleared I noticed he had an archer's bow in his hand. "Wha…" I said but was cut-off by another voice.

"Who are you?" I turned to see the black haired boy, Nico, pick up the bronze knife that I dropped. He blew off the monster dust and wiped it on his black shirt.

Henry looked at him skeptically "Henry Reclin. Who are you?"

Nico glared at him with deep brown eyes "Nico Di Angelo. Son of Hades."

"Hades like that Greek god of the underworld." I asked my brain racing faster than a stopwatch, I seriously needed some sugar, began t consider licking the ice cream goo off the ground, the pavement couldn't be that dirty. Then I looked at the smashed cone, the pavement was bubbling and oozing. Nevermind.

"Exactly," replied Nico. He acted like this was all completely normal. He turned to Henry and said "You're not mortal, are you?"

How could my step-dad not be mortal? But two minutes ago I had just blasted a she monster to bits, so anything was possible.

"No, I'm a son of Apollo, god of poetry, healing, and music." Said Henry, I was about ready to pass out from brain overload.

"I met your dad a few years back." Said Nico casually.

"Really? That must have been interesting. I hear he's quite a character." Said Henry eyebrows raised.

"What are you two talking about?" I yelled, crumpling back onto the grass.

Henry looked down at me with sad eyes "Lea, you are a demi-god. Soon, if we don't get you to safety, more monsters like Lamia will be after you."

"Lamia?" I exclaimed.

"A child eating daemon. And judging by this-," Nico crouched down over the Ice Cream spill, which had eaten a hole in the pavement, "she would poison the children, and then eat them."

"Nico, I trust you. Get Lea to camp half blood as quickly as possible. Lea, I'll explain to your mother." He hugged me and said "Good Luck."

Nico turned to me and said "You ever shadow traveled before?"

"No."

"Then your in for the ride of your life." He said. He grabbed my hand and ran straight towards a brick wall. I prepared myself to watch him slam into it. But instead he passed right through it, taking me with him.


	2. Chapter 2 I Grow a Tattoo

2 I Grow a Tattoo

If you're easily scared, never shadow travel. I can stand rated R horror movies, but shadow travel is a hundred times scarier. Everything is pitch black, and it had to be like 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and when you're traveling at around 100 mph, it makes it even more freezing.

At one point I felt something curl around my ankle. I screamed but no sound emitted itself from my lips. Luckily Nico still noticed and I heard the shhllliiink of a sword being drawn then a thwack and the sound of something fall into the abyss along with a screeeeeeeee that faded into the blackness. I saw light ahead and the next thing I knew I was on top of Nico laying on a large field. Instead of politely getting off of him, I just relaxed and caught my breath. His time wasn't that valuable and it was his fault for bring me into stupid, and frightening shadow dimension. Anyways it just looked like I'd tackled him, which I seriously felt like doing but shadow travel sucked all the light and energy out of my body. I just lay there digging my elbow into his stomach, which was rock hard. This kid must to like bench presses. Eventually I heard "Whoa, Nico. Who's that?"

Nico shoved me off of him, which I guess he could have done earlier but chose not to. Maybe he had just regained his strength from shadow travel. Nico brushed off his clothes and turned to who had spoken. "New demi-god. She's powerful."

A teenage boy a few years older than me was on the top of the hill looking at us with suspicious eyes and raised eyebrows. He had elvish features and wavy brown hair. Another boy that looked exactly like him came over the crest of the hill.

"Travis, Connor, What are you two doing up here?" asked Nico.

They grinned at each other malevolently "Ya know. Stuff." Shrugged the first one.

Nico rolled his eyes and said "You guys better not mess with Peleus. He'll rip you to shreds."

"Peleus?" I asked.

"The dragon." He said pointing behind me.

"Dragon?" I asked. Nico turned around and I followed his gaze. I almost passed out when I saw the thing. It had shiny metallic plated scales that shimmered different colors in the light. It must have been at least 100 feet long because it wrapped around the trunk of a pine tree multiple times. The pine tree was huge too, it would take three people with there arms outstretched to hug the tree completely. Though I have no idea why you would want to. I whimpered and turned back around. To see what other surprises were in store. Not much, just a huge blue house, a rock climbing wall that spurted lava, and some other buildings that all were designed with Greek architecture and lots of strawberry fields. It was beautiful; there were also volleyball and basketball courts. The ocean stretched out in the distance. It faced the opposite direction than I was used to. "Where... where are we?"

"Camp Half Blood, Long Island Sound." Said Nico.

"Oh, Okay we just traveled across the country in a few seconds. That makes sense." I said sarcastically, getting to my feet.

"Well, we gotta go. You two have fun" Said the second boy, he winked and they began to walk away laughing to themselves. Nico muttered "Stoll brothers always up to something." He began to walk down the hill towards the big house. "Come on Lea, you need to meet Chiron."

Something in my brain clicked. Chiron, I knew that name. I mentally flipped through the numerous pages of the Greek mythology picture books at home. I loved them; they had beautifully done images of each creature, hero, or god and box that described them for example:

Artemis:

Goddess of the hunt and chase, maidenhood, and the moon.

Daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo.

Description: Able to change forms but most commonly noted as a young maiden with black, pale brown or auburn hair. Slender, generally barefoot, wearing knee length, silver, pale blue or white tunic.

And so on and so forth. Artemis was by far my favorite Olympian. I wonder if Henry had purposely bought me everyone of those books that he could find. They were short, but if they were any longer my brain wouldn't be able to interpret them. My mind still blanked out on Chiron. He wasn't the ferryman of the dead, that was Charon.

When we got to the front of the house Nico said "Wait here I'll go get him." And he walked in letting the screen door slam loudly. I didn't hear anything from inside so I sat down on the porch steps. After a few minutes I heard footsteps and the clop-clop-clop of hooves as if someone kept a pony in the house. When the screen door opened I thought a seven foot tall man had stepped out, but hen I saw the lower half, he was half horse, a centaur. The man smiled down at me through a scruffy brown beard, he had warm but deadly serious eyes. He did look like a man from a story book. "Hello. You must be Lea."

"You're Chiron, the trainer of heroes, the immortal and most civilized centaur. I thought you were dead." I had no idea where all the facts came from and I know great way to greet someone, saying that you thought they died.

"Well, you seem to know your mythology, that will come in handy and why, might I ask, would you think I was dead?" He asked

"The legends stated that you died from a poison arrow and though you were a great healer you couldn't heal yourself." I said trying to sound as smart as I could without being rude.

"Well the legend has evolved from the truth. I am afraid that legend applies to one of my old centaur friends that I tried but failed at healing." He bowed his head in silent memorial.

"Well, um, Chiron. Should I give Lea a tour?" asked Nico breaking the awkward silence.

"Yes, Mr. di Angelo. That would be nice. It was a pleasure to meet you Lea." I seriously doubted that, but didn't say anything. "Dinner should be in about an hour." With that he walked back into the house.

"He is really stressed out right now, so don't mind." Said Nico.

"Stressed about what?" I asked.

"The Great Stirring. All of the ancient forces rising. First Kronos and most of the titans, then Gaea. " He replied, his eyes were sad and distant.

I stood there staring at him, I heard about the destruction in New York and Greece and wondered if that had anything to do with what he was talking about, I'd ask him later. "So, let's get started on that tour."

He showed me everything, which took at least an hour. We started out at the volley ball courts where I spiked a volleyball that hit him in the face, then ran away yelling "Oh yeah, three pointer!" Though I'm pretty sure there aren't any three pointers in volleyball it had the same effect. Then to Arts and crafts where we got into a sparkle fight with the Aphrodite cabin, and came out completely glitter coated. When we shook our hair out it looked like we had been attacked by fairies. Then the Amphitheater where we met the Apollo cabin who was reenacting the Iliad, I got to play the role of poor defenseless Helen. Then we went to the climbing wall which I didn't dare climb but watch as Nico raced a satyr, and lost horribly, to the top. Then the dunes, where I shoved him into the sand so hard that he rolled all of the way down the hill. We stumbled to the mess hall, coated in sand and glitter, my Helen's toga was ripped and Nico clothes were scorched, and we were laughing so hard my cheek bones hurt.

When I looked up I saw about 300 kids staring at us. Everyone was silent till Chiron said "Everyone, meet our newest recruit Lea, she is undetermined." I heard lots of murmurs, the only one I could make out was from a Hephaestus boy "oh, great another Aphrodite chick." I glared at him. Chiron continued "I see you visited the sand dunes, you must have not been able to hear the diner bell. You may sit down." Nico lead me over to a table with bunch of kids the banner above it said "Minor." In ancient Greek. I whispered to Nico "what does Minor mean?"

"This is the table for the children of the Minor gods." He replied.

"Hades isn't minor." I stated.

"Yeah but I'm his only child and I don't like sitting at a huge table all alone and the head table makes me feel like everyone is watching me eat." He said then he stood up and went over to the buffet table. I followed him. There wasn't much left so I grabbed a slice of pizza and headed back. Nico came up to me and said "Aren't you going to sacrifice some to the gods?" I thought for a moment then said "Like they need it." Thunder rumbled in the distance, I shrugged it off though I knew it wasn't a coincidence.

"True." And then he sat down next to me. I was completely enjoying my meal until I realized how dehydrated I was. I tapped Nico on the shoulder and asked "Hey where are the drinks?"

He grinned "Right here." He picked up his goblet and waved it in front of my face.

"It's empty idiot. I don't know if because you're son of Hades, but I'm pretty sure you need fluids." I said picking up my goblet and teasingly waved it in front of his face.

"No, no, set it down. I'll show you." He placed his goblet on the table and said "Coke." I brown bubbly liquid filled the cup as if poured from and invisible pitcher.

"That's awesome. Can it give you anything?" I asked

"Anything." He sipped his coke tauntingly.

I thought for a minute, and then remembered the time I went to a diner with Henry. That gave me the idea for the best beverage ever. "Mint-chip shake please."

"Sugar addict." Muttered Nico.

"Shut up. You smell like death." I said. I don't know why but even though we were constantly torturing each other, we had fun with it.

"And what does death smell like?" He asked scarfing down his pizza.

"Road kill, wilting roses, and old people." I said.

We both laughed until we realized we were the last two people at the pavilion.

"Campfire starts soon. That's probably where you'll be claimed." He said.

I shred of fear pinned my heart to my stomach. The fact that I would find out who my father was would change everything, and would determine my life at camp.

We walked leisurely over to the campfire where the flames burned purple. I didn't know how that was possible but after seeing, a demon ice cream woman, dragon, and had a mint chip shake magically appear, I figured anything was possible. Everyone sang a campfire song I had never heard before so I just sat staring at the fire which blazed menacingly. The Greek columns rose to the sky which sparkled with stars. After a few songs Chiron walked to the middle of the amphitheater and raised a hand in a gesture for silence. "Now for the claiming" he announced. "Lea come here please."

I looked at Nico he smiled reassuringly. I made my way through the crowds of demigods. When I had reached Chiron everyone was completely silent. I waited for something to happen. An Aphrodite girl snickered. I glared up at her. Before I could do anything else her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell over backwards, everyone gasped. A boy in the third row said "She must be a child of Hades! She killed Drew! No wonder she gets along so well with Nico!"

I didn't know what was going on. Did I kill that girl? If that boy didn't shut up he have the same fate as her. Chiron quickly clopped unto where the girl lay. He put his hand on her forehead then felt her pulse. "No. No she is only asleep. Lea, you must be a daughter of Hypnos. I 'm afraid your siblings are asleep." He said.

Hypnos, well that's not so bad. God, of sleep, though that didn't really seem like me. Just then my finger tips began to glow. Was this normal? Then from the tip of my right middle finger, something began to grow. It was like a living tattoo. A green vine with no leaves weaved its way down my palm around my wrist and reached almost right underneath my elbow. From there a beautiful pinkish-red poppy bloomed and froze. It looked like a really well done tattoo. But something was strange about the poppy's center, when the firelight grew and blazed cobalt blue, I saw that instead of having the small black seed in the center, there was a closed eye, with black eyeliner and eyeshadow. I looked up at Chiron he looked just as awestruck as everyone else "Well, here we have a new god's offspring in our presence. One that I know the symbol but never imagined to meet a demi-god with the mark of it. Hail, Lea, daughter of Morpheus."

The whole crowd gaped and whispered. The silence was broke by a swoosh and clop-clop-clop. About 300 swords and bows were drawn. They all pointed at a beautiful winged horse that had landed not but ten feet away from me. The rider was even more unexpected; Henry sat on the back of a gold hoofed Pegasus.

I stood there for a minute staring trying to interpret what I had just seen. Henry looked over at me and said "So who's your parent?" He smile was wide and the sparkle in his eyes made him look younger.

"Morpheus." I said trying to act as casual as possible with the fact that I was part god.

"Kind of guessed, the fact that your mom never met your dad in person hinted the fact that your dad was one of the Oneiroi, one of Hypnos' attendants or some other god or spirit of sleep." He said getting off the Pegasus and stroking its mane. Chiron watched this whole scene skeptically.

"Oh, Chiron this is my step-dad, Henry," I quickly said.

Chiron's eyebrows raised "Henry Reclin?" he asked.

"It's good to see again Chiron," Henry said.

"We must talk but first I must ask. Is that the Pegasus?"

"Why yes it is. We became acquainted when I fell on top of him. A dragon dropped me. Long story," He explained. Pegasus shook his mane and whinnied in approval of the odd story. Henry continued "Lea, did Nico get you here safely?"

"What does it look like? I'm not monster chow as of yet." The entire camp was watching us like a terribly intense movie. My brain was moving like a subway, fast and too dark to fully interpret much.

"Good where is the boy I'd like to speak with him. Oh and Lea, here are your clothes." He threw me my pink zebra striped duffle bag.

Chiron looked out to the crowd and said "Well campers, this has been an interesting night. Will Solace and Layla Rue will you please take Pegasus to the stable and treat him to some complimentary snacks." A pretty brunette girl and handsome blond boy stood and took Pegasus with them out of the campfire area. "The rest of you are dismissed." Kids slowly filed out, some got last glances at me and Henry. Chiron looked at me and said "Lea room 21, Nico take her there." I nodded in thanks.

Nico and I slowly made our way to cabin 21. We stared up at the stars; he pointed out a constellation of a girl shooting a bow, and told me the story of Zoe Nightshade. She was a hunter of Artemis who was killed by her unmerciful father. I hoped she and I wouldn't have similar fates. I asked Nico what the Hunters of Artemis were, his face darkened.

"They are the immortal huntresses of Artemis." He said, but I could tell a secret was locked behind those dazzling night black eyes. They reflected the stars as he looked up, he face was so mature and ageless, like he himself was immortal.

"Sounds like fun." I said pondering the fact of eternally hunting monsters. Suddenly Nico's eyes brightened with rage, he turned to me fuming. "No it's not fun to ditch your friends and family and everyone else you love and who love you, for people you don't even know."

At first I was alarmed, but not scared. He temper seemed to soar at certain things. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder and said "I would never," He looked at me his eyes sad and then he crumpled to the ground. I sat down next to him, he looked over at me with red rimmed eyes, he was crying. I don't find crying babyish; I actually think it's best to let emotions show. It's the sign of a true human being.

"My sister left me to become a hunter, while she was on a quest she died." He said his voice faltered. I put my arm around him, I had never lost someone close to me and I couldn't imagine the pain of losing a sibling.

"I'm sorry I went off on you like that." He said.

"I understand." I said and I rested my head on his shoulder. We sat there on the grass and let time tick slowly by. He muttered "so many regrets, so little memories of peace." I didn't know what he meant but I figured I'd find out soon.

My cabin was so boring. It was nothing like the other cabins that were made of stone and all prettily decorated. Mine was a simple wood shack with 21 painted over the doorway, and one bunk bed in the middle of the single room. At least it was big. Big and empty. I threw my duffel bag into the corner and flopped onto the bottom bunk. My first day at camp had been amazing, not fun necessarily, but amazing. I had only met Nico this morning but I felt like I could dump all my secrets and dreams on him. Friendship between us was almost involuntary. I closed my eyes and sleep took me away to worlds unseen by any other person. Except no dreams found me and the creepy lady didn't show, I was left in pleasant peace.

When I woke light shown through the rafters like rays down from heaven. I breeze blew in through the open window.

I was sure I had closed that window before I went to bed and locked the door, the only reason why I remember this is because I got my finger jammed in the process. Which led to me yelling and cursing at the door and at that moment A Hermes kid was walking by, he raised an eyebrow and kept walking. He looked amused but me screaming at my door probably wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen that day.

I didn't care about the magical borders protecting me from external monsters; the forest edge was no barrier for the monsters that lurked there. I slowly stood up, cautiously creeping to the door to take a full look around the room. There weren't many hiding places but monsters were good at disguising themselves. Then a noticed a small black form on the top bunk, I quietly scrounged through the duffel bag Henry had given me. I pulled out a bronze knife, and tip-toed slowly over to the bunk-bed. Why didn't the thing kill me in my sleep? I was about to throw the knife when someone mumbled, and the body shifted and pale hand draped over the bunks edge. A skull ring was on the middle finger. Either Nico was sleeping in the upper bunk, or a creature lay up there chewing on Nico's arm. Second choice was not likely.

I stood on the edge of my bed to look at him. When I finally got bored of waiting for him to wake up, this wasn't long because of my ADHD. I took the bottom bunk mattress and placed it next to the bed. Then I shoved Nico off the upper bunk onto the mattress. He let out a strangled scream of surprise and I heard an unnatural pop when he hit the floor. He groaned, his voice muffled because he was still face down, "What was that for?"

"Sleeping in my cabin without asking me!" I put a lot of hints on the words my and me, just to show him he should never do it again. I continued "How did you even get in. I locked the door?"

"Window," He grumbled.

"I shut it!" I exclaimed.

"Didn't lock it." He said getting up and brushing the dust off his clothes.

"Creep," I said my arm crossed.

"What made you think that, the black clothes, the smell of death, or the fact that Hades is my dad? Geez, Lea, not bad at stating the obvious are ya?" I felt like punching him in the face though I wasn't mad at all. Indecision was just one of my wonderful qualities.

"Okay whatever, why are you in here?" I asked.

"I went to my cabin and when I fell asleep, I had some really disturbing nightmares. So I figured, bad dreams, why not go see the demi-god of dreams. Maybe she could help, if anyone could." He nervously scratched the back of his neck and looked at his shoes.

"Yeah, the demi-god of dreams, that had discovered her powers that night, lots of experience." I said sarcastically

"Look, you're the only person here, that I trust," He blurted out the he blushed deep scarlet. That last response shocked me so much my next reply was purely unintentional.

"I met you yesterday," I said, awestruck.

"I don't know, never mind, it was stupid of me. Just forget it," He was about to storm out the door when I said,

"But something between us clicked."

He looked at me his black eyes gleaming, the tiny splatter of freckles across his nose making look like the child he really was. People thought of him as always being deadly serious, (no pun intended), but that's not what I saw in him. I silently cursed at myself for saying that, now everything would be all uncomfortable.

"So," I said "What terribly scary and amazing thing should we do today?"

"That is entirely up to you," He said being as gentlemanly as a fourteen year old son of Hades could be.

"I say we eat. I'm starving. Then can you give me a personal tour of the forest so we can kick some monster butt."

"Yeah, but there is something that none of the other campers know about, that I want to show you." He said his eyes glinting malevolently


	3. Chapter 3 I Reenact clash of the Titans

3 I Reenact Clash of the Titans

Nico grabbed my hand and practically dragged me into the forest behind my cabin. He pulled my by my wrist over tightly wound roots and slippery moss. I have no idea how he found his way around, he must have explored the woods pretty well. It was dark in the forest though the sun had risen already, barely any light filtered it's way though the canopy of leaves. The trees looked like extremely ancient oaks, if you were to cut them down and count the rings they would have like a hundred.

When we had reached a part of the forest where you couldn't see the exit Nico let go of his iron grip on my wrist leaving red marks where his fingers had once been. I gasped in the cool damp mourning air that hung silently in the forest. "Why did you have to drag me?" I screamed.

"Because, I didn't want anyone to see, so that they won't follow." He said peering over my shoulder.

"And you couldn't have just said ' Hey lea, follow me but be quiet I don't want anyone to see where were going'!" I threw m hands up in false surrender and exasperation.

"Fine whatever, I won't do it again. Now follow me." And he jogged off deeper not the woods, I stood there a minute considering if I should go back the way we came and ditch him in the forest, but instead I ran after him into the even tighter woven trees.

I caught up to Nico easily, and we jogged in silence, I could here things rustling beside us, but just ignored them. After about five minutes he halted abruptly and I nearly ran into a tree trying to see why he stopped. The small clearing seemed fairly normal, just gnarled moss coated roots covering the soil so fertile that it was the color of black coffee. The light shown down the leaves making them different shades of green.

Nico leaned against a giant oak tree that looked older than time itself. I noticed one part of the tree was indented in a perfect circle, like when you cut a branch of a tree and the trunk continues to grow around it. Except for this indent, was the perfect size, an open hand would press firmly against and have only about a half-an inch around the finger tips, It was about shoulder height, not noticeable to the passerby but when you looked closely you could tell it wasn't natural.

Nico smiled, and said "You're observant, that'll help you as a demi-god."

"Thank you, sensei." I said sarcastically, placing a hand on my hip, hinting he should get to the point.

"I made this a few months, ago so that my transport to my dad's castle would be easier." he said, then he turned around placed his hand on the knot, at first nothing happened. Then as the knot slid inward part of the trunk of the tree dissolved into nothing, making a small black void, I could fit through it but I would have to duck.

"When I'm staying with my father, you can use this to come visit me." He said, he looked at it with such pride, it made me think about how much energy it would take to make another entrance to the underworld, though I'm not sure it was a great idea, spirits could use it to escape from the underworld and Hades wouldn't be happy with that.

"So you want me to intentionally fall down the rabbit hole?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

Nico obviously didn't get because all he said was "Yeah."

"Cool, how do I close it?" I asked.

"When you go in it automatically closes behind you."

"How do I get out?"

"There's a rock on the ground next to the entry on the other side, step on it and the wall will open."

"How do we close it now." I said as I peeked into the hole, it was cold and damp like a cave, I don't like caves, probably because I'm claustrophobic.

"Just press the button again." He said, and I placed my hand on the button it slid in easily, and the gap closed.

"Great, now can we eat I'm starving." I asked and we jogged back out of the forest.

After a filling breakfast of cornflakes, which I dumped the entire sugar shaker on, we decided, that we should try some charioteering, and at the next race we would be a team. When we were about to leave Henry came up to us and said "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Nothing much." I said which was a total lie, but I'm great liar.

Henry grinned, "Well, kiddo I'm off to teach some archery. Have fun, and be safe." He laughed and walked off he happily sighed to himself, "It's just how I remember but bigger… a lot bigger."

Henry had always been super cool. When I was six and my mom remarried to him, I got really mad and started doing spiteful things, in hopes to scare him off. Like this one time, I plugged the shower drain up with play-doh, hey, I was six, play-doh was a weapon back then. You see out shower was one of those ones where the door was suctioned to the glass panel, wall thing, So if water hit it none would leak out. Me being the devious girl that I am, plugged the drain turned on the water and closed the door. My mother and Henry were on there honeymoon and I had a babysitter. She thought I was in my bed but, no I was wide awake, how could I be asleep when she had the TV turned up so loud. But I was partly thankful for the noise that the TV made, it covered up the sound of the running water.. When the shower was up to the brim I climbed up and sat on the metal brim of the shower and carefully used my foot to turn the lever vertical and shut off the water. The babysitter never noticed because she wasn't aloud in my parent bedroom unless she was chasing out of there (so she was actually in there quite a lot). But my mom noticed almost instantly, she rushed in gave me a kiss on the cheek and said "It is soo time for a shower."

When she walked into her bathroom she scream and came running in towards me fuming.

A little bit about my mom, she's strict when she's mad but compassionate most the time, her light brown hair is always slickly pulled back into a bun and she's almost always in her nice business clothes. Most of the time when she's mad she sighs and gives me a look that says "was that really necessary" then leaves me to bask in my guilt. But this time she looked about ready to explode, luckily at that moment Henry walked through the door with the luggage. He saw her face and asked "Okay, what's going on?"

My mom furiously pointed a finger at me "She, filled the shower up with water completely!"

Henry raised an eyebrow at me in a mixture of confusion, amusement and anger. "I'll handle this one Melissa." I feared he'd tie a boulder to my ankle and drop me in to the shower and leave me there but instead he said "Let's go for a drive."

When we were in the car he told me about how everything on there honeymoon went wrong, Hotel reservations that didn't go through, a call from grandma saying that grandpa had taken a tumble, pick-pockets, identity theft, which I'm pretty sure was a result of the pick-pocket, and even a fire. When we parked I looked outside to see PETCO in large red and blue neon letters. Henry went in bought me a goldfish, which I named Poco, and when we got home he dumped Poco in the shower. My mom was confused at first then they went into a different room and talked, when they cam out my mom seemed satisfied. Poco stayed in the shower for about a week. Until Henry said "I think the soap from the shampoo in there is making him sick, so we bought Poco a bowl fished him out of the shower and Henry went diving. I never pulled a stunt like that again because I knew Henry was a good guy and he would be a great dad. Which he always has been and having him at camp is super.

Nico and headed down to the chariot track, which was basically a field with cement stands and I dirt track with deep ruts in tit from all of the chariot wheels that skidded across it. There was only two other people at the track, a Hispanic boy with extremely elvish features, he looked about sixteen and judging by his tool he was a Hephaestus kid, then there was a girl about twelve that looked like she could be his sister on both sides squatted next to him, she was also Hispanic and elvish but her hair was a lighter brown and a bit more reddish. They both had oil stains and scorch marks on there camp half blood shirts. They were screwing on wheel to an awesome looking chariot. It was gold with copper flames, it looked simple but from what I had heard about the Hephaestus cabin it probably had a bunch of gizmos and gadgets loaded into it. When the guy saw us he smiled, "Hey Nico, hey Lea. That's your name isn't, you're the girl who got claimed as the first daughter of Morpheus right? You're the first Primum Cruor I've ever met."

I translated that to first blood. "I'm Leo Valdez and this is Ava Bellow, my sister, on my dad's side."

"Leo, stop it. You talk too much." said Ava then she punch him on the shoulder which I usually would have found playful but she looked like she was punch him for the sake of punching him, also it looked like she punched him pretty hard without much effort. She was right but I'd rather have him ramble then have to talk myself.

"Geez, sis. Just trying to be friendly, unlikely somebody." He rolled his head around and then looked strait at her; he rubbed his arm where she punched, which proved that it hurt. The second his hand left his shoulder she punched him again. Before Leo could say anything else Nico said "Lea, Leo was one of the kids who went to Greece in attempt to destroy Gaia."

"It's not an attempt when you win, it's a win when you win. That sounds confusing but anyways we won, me especially. Good looks always help in the Winning, dep."

"So you were no help on that quest then," I joked.

"Actually-" he started but Nico cut him off.

"So are you finished with the chariot?" he asked.

"Yeah, just finished. You guys want to take it for a spin?" asked Leo.

"Even though you're Hephaestus I'm not sure I trust it, or myself with it." I said, which was true, I'm not great at driving. Like this one time Henry took me to an amusement park to go go-cart racing, I was fine till the end when I ran over the instructor's foot and that was in a stable gas powered go cart, I wonder what I could destroy with a horse pulled, two wheel, rickety half box. So all I said was "Yeah, I'll give it a try, just don't freak out if I scratch the paint job because I'm pretty sure I'll either scratch off and entire side or just somehow cause it to explode."

"Making stuff explode, I don't know why. But it seems all demi-gods no matter the parent are very good at that." Leo said then laughed lightly, making his eyes squint. "Ava can go to the stable and get some horses."

"Why me?" Ava whined.

"That won't be necessary." Said Nico.

He unsheathed his sword and merely touched the ground with it before two skeleton horses sprung from the dirt.

"Well, that's cool." I said, watching the horses bray and stamp there feet with impatience.

"And tiring." Said Nico. He was pale, even more than usual, and he was doubled over in exhaustion, my powers didn't make me like that, well at least what I'd done so far, I wondered why?

"Let's go," pushing the subject to the side of my mind.

We loaded into the chariot which was surprisingly stable for something that looked like if you poked it, it would fall over. There were little brass knobs and buttons which I didn't dare press in fear, of accidentally pressing one that sends out a blade and kills someone, it would be a first for me but I'm sure not for camp.

Leo reined the horses with great precaution, "Are you okay with doing that because I can?" asked Nico.

"Nah, man it's fine I used to have pet skeleton horses," He said, "Okay, I think you're ready to go." He said slapping his hand down on one of the horses hindquarters, this spooked the horse and it reared up on it hind legs red eyes glowing in fear, this intern scared the other horse who whinnied loudly. Then both the horses took off in a sprint.

You know those roller coaster rides that are pretty flat but go insanely fast and take really sharp turns? Yeah, well, this was like one of those but for one, no seat belts, two there's nothing to hold on to but the slick sides of the chariot. Worst of all when I'm on roller coasters I sprawl out like a kitten that's just be thrown. So I was all spread out, one hand gripping the side of the chariot so hard my knuckles were white and the other hand clutching Nico's shoulder. I was half-way into the splits and my knees were buckled. We flew so fast around the corners that the chariot almost whipped all the way around so that it was in front of the horses. The wind turned my hair into a bunch of leather whips that continued to torment my face with lashes.

All of the sudden Nico pulled up on the reins and I nearly flew onto the horse in front of me. Luckily he grabbed my arms, and we went into a skidding halt.

Nico looked over at me and grinned "Not your thing?"

"Nooooo," I said hurling my self out of the chariot.

Ava stood with her arms crossed but she was smiling "Did well, for your first time."

"Thanks," I said, "Hey, where did Leo go?" I asked after noticing the strange silence because of his absence.

"I think the horses scared him off," She said, she this evil little flicker in her eyes, like the Hermes kids did. As if they had stuck a shrimp in your bra without you noticing.

"So what else is there to do here?" I asked trying to strike up conversation with her while Nico calmed the horses down.

"Plenty, I would show you the armory which is like my second home but you know you probably already have your weapon."

"We get our own weapons?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm guessing by that you still haven't got yours," She replied.

"Nope."

"Well then lets go," She said waving her hand in a motion for me to follow her.

Nico came up to me wiping his hands together which were red from the rope burns giving to him by the reins. I looked behind me and the horses were gone.

"Umm." I said.

Nico noticed and replied "I dismissed them."

"What does that entail. 'Your dismissed you can crumble back into the dust in which you came from, thank you'?" I said sarcastically.

"Yeah pretty much." he replied. "To the armory then?"

We walked over the crest of the hill past the stables, to the armory, which was a small shack partly tucked in the woods.

When we entered the shack there was only one other person in there. A girl with dusty brunette hair that went down to the small of her back crouched down looking through a pile of rusty tools on the ground.

"Cloe?" asked Ava.

The girl jumped backwards from the junk and looked up at us. She had sparkly hazel eyes, and a kind smile. She looked like one of those cool babysitters that let's you stay up till ten watching TV. She had to be somewhere around seventeen, but she still seemed like she would be fun to hang out with. She also appeared to be good friends with Ava, because of the way that they regarded each other, casually. She and Ava had to be at least four years apart in age. I guess age difference doesn't matter much here at camp.

"Oh hey Ava." She said standing up and dusting herself off, she held a small potted pinkish- red poppy. "Oh and I see Lea, is with you. I was just looking for a good shovel so that I could transplant this into a larger pot."

"Oh, and Nico the demi-god of death is here too." She pulled the poppy in closer to her; I could tell she wasn't trying to be mean, because of the forced smile, I'm pretty sure she just wanted to protect her plant. Which wilted when Nico came close.

"So who you gonna give the flower too? Will?" said Ava poking Cloe in the shoulder suggestively teasing. I wondered if she meant Will Solace, the attractive blonde boy that Chiron asked to take care of Pegasus last night.

"No! No were, like a year apart, he'd never go for me. And anyways I was actually going to give this as a Welcome to Camp Half Blood gift to Lea."

She handed the poppy to me and said "Sorry, I'll replant it soon. I thought it would be nice because even though it is also the symbol of my mother, and Hypnos, It is also the symbol of your father as you can see by your tattoo."

"Thanks, it's really pretty. So who's your mom?"

"Lady Demeter." She said.

"She likes cereal too much." Muttered Nico. Thunder rumbled in the distance, so Nico held his hands up in surrender and the thunder died. It must have been like the Olympians saying "Watch it young man or I'll blast you!"

"You've met my mom?" asked Cloe.

"Yeah, she came and visited the underworld when I was there." Said Nico.

"Anyways, Lea's looking for a weapon." Said Ava.

"Well, you came to the right place. You strike me as a sword person. no pun intended." Said Cloe.

We walked over the side of the shed that was specifically designated to swords. The were long one with huge hilts and small thick ones with tiny little handles, double-edged, double bladed, and even a sword that had a blade on either side of the hilt.

"Okay, this place is like really cool. But I don't want to limit myself to swords" I said trying to take in all of my surroundings.

"We have any type of weapon you can think of. We have everywhere from A-symmetrical clubs to Atom bombs." Said Ava.

"Atom Bombs?" I asked.

"Yeah, but there locked up for emergencies." Said Nico, eyeing a short black dagger with a skull on the hilt.

I walked around the shed, looking at the shelves stacked three feet high with deadly objects. I wouldn't trust myself in here alone, too much fun.

One thing in particular caught my eyes, a fork. I know what your think, why would you want a fork? Well, for one I was really hungry, the cornflakes didn't settle after our chariot rodeo, and also it was so out of place. I went over and picked it up, "So, what's the range on this thing." I said jokingly.

"Actually I think a Hephaestus kid must have accidentally, they sometimes take the forks from the dining hall and use them as scrap metal." Said Cloe.

I looked at the old cork target on the wall, and passively chucked the fork at it. It twirled in the air a few times the struck the target with such force it fell off the wall. Nico and Ava stared as Cloe went and picked up the target with my fork tightly implanted on the bull's-eye. "You are actually fairly accurate." Said Cloe.

"Y-yeah I guess and I have no idea how I did that. But I can't use forks to fight off monsters, can I?"

"Actually I bet you could with that precision. I killed a hyperborean giant with a wrench once, forks can't be much different." Said Ava.

"Yeah, I killed three scorpions with a rusty trowel once. Weird weapons aren't out of the question for demigods, that might actually be a good attack strategy, fake em with a sword, then fork their face off." Replied Cloe.

"Though that does sound cool, I 'm not sure it possible to fork something's face off." I said. "But yeah I'm totally open to using forks I think that's what I'd be best at." I said trying to lift up a sword that weighed about 200 pounds.

"Cool, let's consult Chiron, I sure he'll be willing to give you some." Said Nico.

""Oh, and I'll go make you a really cute bag to carry them in." said Ava looking like she was already brainstorming the design.

"How about I design it." Said Cloe picking up the Poppy, "Because I already have the experience my mom being a fashion designer and all."

"Oh whatever." Said Ava, and they walked out bickering in a teasing way.

Nico just looked confused, then shrugged. "What now?"

"Chiron?" I asked.

"I think he's busy right now, yeah Aphrodite archery class is at ten." Said Nico.

"Well why don't we take a walk, I'm sure we'll find something." I suggested blankly.

We walked around as it grew hotter and hotter as the sun rose, it became almost unbearable by the time we reached the dock. I felt like my face was melting off, with all of my sweat. Nico looked flustered too.

"I think I'm about ready for a swim." I said looking at the water sparkling tauntingly.

"Don't you need to change?" asked Nico.

I looked down at what I was wearing, the camp shirt and pink false denim shorts.

"Nope. I'm fine." I said. Then I flicked off my hot pink flip-flops. Nico stood uncomfortably on the docks edge looking into the water as if there was something gross in it like an old diaper, but as far as I could see there was only soft muddy sand and reeds, and also a few glowing green teenage girls, but because Nico didn't say anything about hem as the swam around the shallows I figured they were normal. It was only about twenty feet deep, and perfectly clear till it dropped over a ledge.

I observed the lake till I couldn't bear it anymore. I took one look at Nico, who suddenly got a panicked look on his face, then sprinted at him. I shoved him then dove over the top of him. I have always been a great swimmer and loved the feeling of the water on my skin. The strokes and dives came naturally, by the age of ten Henry had already taught me how to do flips and high dives. I could stay underwater, holding my breath for a little less than five minutes. Nico was obviously the exact opposite.

He struggled a little before he swallowed some water and then the water swallowed him. Then it dawned upon me, he might not know how to swim, no wonder he was acting so uncomfortable. Thank the gods, for those extra life-guarding classes. I dove under opening my eyes beneath the shadowy depths. I could tell where he was because of the mud cloud he was making. I couldn't see very well but I knew what to do. I swam underneath his thrashing feet, then up along next to him. He was clearly freaking out because the places where he put his hands I would not accept under any other conditions. Then I let us sink for a few seconds till my feet hit the sandy floor then shoved us both us to the surface. Nico automatically clinged onto the dock then scrambled up onto the top, coughing up what looked like gallons of lake water. I felt bad, all that happened to me was water up my nose and a few scratches from him trying to climb me like a ladder.

He then flopped flat out onto the wood, where he laid breathing heavily in panicky breaths. I climbed up the teeny latter at the other side of the dock, my bangs plastered themselves to my forehead, but I didn't care.

"You okay?" I asked lamely.

He coughed in response.

Guilt washed over me faster than the water did over him.

"Sorry, I didn't know you couldn't swim."

"S' okay." He croaked.

"So much for an afternoon swim." I said sitting down next to him. The water that dripped from my disheveled hair hit the wood and evaporated immediately into steam.

He cracked a smile.

"I was afraid for a minute there I'd have to give you mouth to mouth, and trust me that's not on my bucket list." I joked.

His eyes sparkled and he looked at me and smiled, "I wish I could swim."

"Maybe I could teach you." I said. I taught swim at the local Racket Club, to a few six year olds, that was fairly easy, and I was sure Nico would be a better learner.

He sat up. "Really?"

"Yeah, but we'd have to start out slow. No butterfly or anything." Nico looked at me like he didn't know what the butterfly was but I didn't bother explaining.

We walked over to the shallows were it was only around four feet deep and I taught him the basics. We even got to diving. He learned so fast that if I taught him anymore he would be better than me. It had only been about two hours when we decided to race.

"The first one to that buoy wins." I decreed, pointing at a small red and white buoy with an ineligible design on it. It was about one third of the way into the lake. But the lake being as huge as it was, that meant hundreds of feet out. Okay so more like thirty yards.

We sped off, neck in neck. I was going easy on him but he was still pretty fast now that me had taken off all of his weapons, he wore his cargo shorts only, showing off how extremely fit hit was for his small structure. I beat him to the buoy but he wasn't far behind. While I waited I looked at the text that was printed on the buoy:

D N T IM PA TH KR EN

I couldn't tell what it said because of my dyslexia and the fact hat most of it was scratched off, but figured it was just something like: _do not use as flotation device_ or _no lifeguard on duty_.

When he caught up, we sculled for a little breathing hard. "Nice job." I said.

"I let you win; I didn't want to ruin your pride."

"Yeah right." And I shoved his head under.

"I'll race you back." He said.

"Fine, whoever loses has to be the winner's servant for the next hour." I stated.

"You're on." He said.

"It's settled then and will you stop touching my foot?" I said noticing the feeling of something rubbing against my foot.

"I'm not." He said and as soon as he did it stopped. He was just trying to psyche me out. So without even saying go, I launched out using the buoy like a springboard. At one point I stopped and waited for him to catch up. I looked at the dock. There were two campers jumping up and down yelling something at first I thought they were cheering, but they looked worried. I decided to leave Nico to see what they wanted. I was about fifty feet away from the dock when I heard a rumbling noise like the Hoover Dam breaking. I looked behind me. Something was rising out of the water, something huge. I looked at Nico who was about thirty feet away. He gave me a look that clearly said_ Get to shore, NOW! _But I was frozen, staring as the skyscraper of a monster rose from the lake, which was apparently deeper than it seemed. Nico had caught up to me and was trying to drag me back to the dock. But I stayed treading where I was. When the mass of flesh could get no larger and all off the mist had fallen I saw what at first looked like an oldly shaped giant skyscraper, but then I saw the huge eye, bloodshot, blue red and purple, with a slit pupil that could fit a whale.

It was shaped like a giant squid, it looked exactly like that thing from Pirates of the Caribbean, but a whole lot bigger.

Finally I snapped out of it as a giant tentacle with suckers as big as my face swung at me. I dove underneath the surface and breast stroked till my lungs hurt. When I reached the surface and gasped for air, Nico sped past me going in hyper-speed freestyle. There were other campers on the dock shooting at the squid with bows and arrows or throwing spears. I was only thirty feet away when another tentacle swooshed down and smashed the dock sending campers flying, all, luckily, into the water.

I then realized what the buoy said:

DO NOT SWIM PAST THE POINT LIVE KRAKEN

It was I who had awoken and released the kraken. It swung it's eight arms around flinging campers and smashing buildings that were in a close enough radius. I had to do something, I had to stop the destruction. I stood in the shallows with Nico and some disoriented campers. I was about to yell and get the beasts attention, when a column of water shot up right next to the squid.

"It's Percy!" cried a Demeter girl.

"Were saved!" Shouted a Apollo kid.

I didn't know what to do. Where had the guy come from? Who was he? Why did he have to take my job? I started to feel jealousy overwhelm me.

Everyone yelled in rejoice till, the kraken swung his arm/tentacle and hit the boy, he went flying towards us. He landed with a giant splash in front of me.

He had jet black hair and startling green eyes. He was hot, not just meh, H-O-T, I'm pretty sure he could blind you with a smile. A glowing sword was in his hand. He looked confused, but not hurt. I didn't know how he could have survived but it was almost like the water cushioned him.

He looked at me "Who are you?"

"Lea. Primum Cruor of Morpheus. Shouldn't we focus on the task at hand?" I asked pointing a the kraken who continued to ruin the nearby buildings.

"A Primum Cruor, really I thought there were no more of those?" he asked, ignoring my question.

"I don't even know what it is, but people keep on calling me one."

"Primum Cruor means First Blood. Which means you're the first demi-god child of Morpheus. Making you the most powerful one."

"You're like 75% god instead of fifty." Chimed in Nico.

"You're probably as powerful as any child of the big three," continued Percy as he chopped of a piece of tentacle that shot at him.

The kraken roared but Percy seemed to be to into what he was saying to notice.

"If Primum Cruors are so powerful then why have I never heard of one?" I asked defiantly.

"They always get killed before they can do anything. Sometimes their godly parent s are the ones to kill them, themselves, because most Primum Cruors are as powerful as some minor gods."

"Well, that's comforting." I said.

"You can help fight this thing. Just stay still till I say to move and trust me." Said Percy. "oh and make sure to bend your knees."

At first I was confused then I rocketed into the air, a column of water underneath me.

Percy yelled to me "Your dad is the god of dreams right?"

"Yeah."

"Can you sing?" he asked.

"What?" I shrieked. Now, I'm a pretty good singer but nowhere near an American Idol contestant. I only sang in the shower if at all.

"It's too big to kill, so we'll have to lull it back to sleep." He said.

We were still shooting through the air towards the creature on our little water rockets, I was beginning to wonder how sane this Percy guy really was.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Keep you up where it can hear you."

It's eye was only a few hundred feet away now.

"Fine! But how and what should I sing?"

"Just concentrate on putting the thing to sleep and make sure to look straight into it's eye now matter how creepy it is. About the song I don't know what you know, just rock-a-bye-baby or something."

There was no way I was singing that. I mentally shuffled through my entire iTunes library. Then I remembered a CD that Henry had given me to download to the computer, Priscilla Ahn's A Good Day album, one song called Lullaby.

By now I was right in front of the kraken staring into it's ginormous eye. It seemed to have noticed us two specks because it stopped thrashing about. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I looked at Percy. All of the sudden he had a face that said _Idea! _Then he stared straight forward and the water below us began to rise is a huge circle wall. Percy looked like he was using all of his energy to support it. I had no idea what he was doing until he grunted "Sing."

It echoed of the water walls like a surround sound speaker. Water doesn't absorb sound it reflects it. He had used the water like a microphone for me. I took a deep shaky breath and began to sing:

_Here's a lullaby,_

_For anyone who wants to fly,_

_From there hometown,_

_where people drown and where the townies die,_

_This old library,_

_Had thirty books and one dictionary,_

_But that's okay no one reads anyway,_

_We all watch TV,_

The squids eyelid began to droop.

_So here's your lullaby,_

_No boys gonna cry,_

_Just rest your head,_

_And go to bed,_

_Your time will come to fly away,_

_Sleep.._

I had just barely finished the chorus when the kraken sank slowly back into the depths, only leaving behind giant bubbles as he went down, down, down.

Percy sighed and dropped the water walls. He looked so very tired, while I had only broke sweat because of nerves,

He looked at me and smiled "Nice job. You're actually a really good singer." I started to feel myself blushing. "Oh, and by the way," he continued, "You're eyes glow when you do that."

He slowly directed us back to the smashed dock. For a few minutes people stared in awe, "Let me formally introduce myself. I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. I think it's time we talk to Chiron, Krakens are supposed to be Norse."


	4. Chapter 4 I Become a Prodemigod

4- I Suddenly Become a Pro-Demigod

I walked with Nico and Percy to the big house we stopped on the way to get changed out of our soaking clothes. When we reached the house I took a moment to take in the enormity of it. Percy gazed up at it longingly. He looked sad but pleased.

"So Percy, I thought you were at camp Jupiter?" asked Nico.

"Yeah I was. But you know how things work. I got a bad feeling in my gut, and I jumped into the lake, and when I reached the surface I was here," Percy explained as he stepped into the house.

I browsed my mental library for a Camp Jupiter, no results. Percy kept walking deeper into the house.

"What's camp Jupiter?" I asked as I sipped at the coke Percy gave me when we entered the house. We sat in the living room with a living leopard head (I didn't ask), a big leather couch, bunch of creepy masks on the walls, and the place looked as if nobody tried weed management for fifty years because it was overgrown with vines. I noticed coming in that most of the pictures in the house were of Percy and some blonde chick.

"Camp Jupiter, is the camp where the Roman demigods go," Explained Percy. His timing was perfect, I had just taken a large gulp of coke, I felt it shoot up my nasal passage and I nearly choked. My throat and nose burned. The coke had suddenly lost it's appeal and I set it on the coffee table.

"What?" I gasped at him.

"Yeah, I thought Nico would've told you already," He glared pointedly at Nico. Nico Shrugged, Percy continued "We just recently found out about it, I woke up with no socks and no memory and well the story about it is pretty long, nevermind."

"Well okay then," I remarked, "I'll just pretend like that's normal. So there are roman demigods too?"

I eyed my coke can, wondering if I dared to take another sip.

"Yeah, the gods can exist in two different forms at once, roman or Greek." Explained Percy.

I took the risk and took another swig of Coke.

"I have a half-sister named Hazel, a daughter of Pluto." Said Nico and once again I felt the soda rush up in my nose.

"Nice timing," I choked.

Percy chuckled quietly to himself, "Sorry but that was great, nice one Nico."

"What, oh yeah, sorry Lea. I should've told you earlier," mumbled Nico looking down embarrassed for me.

"Awww, I think it's coming out my nose," I said as the burning sensation flood downward. I sniffed and wiped my nose with my purple hoodie's sleeve as my nose twitched angrily.

At this Percy, who couldn't hold it in any longer, burst out laughing. I joined in with him, but Nico just stared at us confused.

At that moment Henry walked in "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Were explaining to Lea what camp Jupiter is." Said Percy

"We came to see Chiron," said Nico.

"I sang to a Kraken." I said joining in casually.

"Really Lea, nice job. Joe doesn't always go right back to sleep. One time we had to have the Hermes cabin steal all of the Animal Rescue Center's tranquilizer, there was wild raccoons everywhere for the nest few weeks. So who swam past the buoy?"

I silently raised my hand.

"Don't sweat it, you didn't know. Anyways, Timothy is very territorial. One toe past the line, he's awake and ready." Said Henry.

"Timothy the Kraken?" asked Percy.

"Yes."

"Well, okay, not he weirdest thing I've ever heard," stated Percy, "Hey, how come when we canoe past that invisible border, he doesn't wake up?"

"Because he can't smell you." Replied Henry, hanging his bow up on the wall.

"Aren't Kraken's Norse not Greek? That's what we came here to ask." Nico finally joined into the conversation.

"Perception," Said Henry, "Percy, you know how Apollo and Artemis inherited Selene's and Helios' reign over the moon and sun."

"Yeah."

"Well that's because of what the majority of mortals chose to worship them for and you could walk out onto any city street and ask where the kraken comes from in mythology. Almost all mortals would say it was Greek. Do you see where I'm getting?"

"So if something is strongly perceived for what it's not, it suddenly becomes that?" I asked.

"Well, they just kind of morph. It only works with mythology. You can't look at a pancake and tell everyone it's a waffle, and if they believe you, it won't magically change into a waffle."

"Shame, that would be cool." Said Percy.

"Yeah, but then all the waffle irons would go to waste." I said.

Percy shrugged.

"Who knows it could be catastrophic to the breakfast industry." I joked.

Once again Percy cracked up and just watching him I started laughing too. Henry chuckled and sighed "teenagers." As he walked into a back room.

Nico didn't laugh at all he just sat glaring at Percy.

"So I hear that the other campers have scheduled activities, do we?" I asked, think about what classes I might be good at.

"Yeah, kind of," said Percy, "I have a schedule but it's not enforce, and it's only in the afternoon. I usually teach my own classes. Except for Chiron's class at three."

"What does Chiron teach?"

"Mortal studies is what we call it."

"That sounds weird. What is it?" I asked.

"It's basic stuff like math, science, history. So that I can say I have full high school diploma. Chiron's a licensed teacher you know." Replied Percy as we walked back out of the big house, Nico trailed behind us, not saying a word.

"Maybe he or Henry can do the same for me." I said hopefully, as we jostled our way through a herd of Aphrodite girls who shrieked "Percy!" and glared at me as we walked by.

A bell sounded in the distance. Percy turned to me smiled giddily "Lunch time."

We raced each other to the pavilion but Nico just waked behind. I won but only because I shoved Percy before he could start gaining speed, he fell and I whipped him.

We were the first one's there and we loped over to the buffet table our legs burning with amino acid. There was sandwiches of all kinds unfortunately they were all cold sandwiches, no melts or paninis which was a shame cause I love paninis.

I steered clear of the PB&J's because I'm allergic to peanut butter. Not seriously allergic, just a piercing headache in my temples that last for around five hours, not too painful just seriously annoying, it also stops me from concentrating, sleeping, and basically enjoying myself, so I went for a roast beef and cheddar on sourdough with salt and pepper organic potato chips.

It was delicious, but you see the thing about me is I get really hungry then when I eat the hunger subsides after about two bites. I've got the stomach the size of a walnut so I get full really quickly, and then twenty minutes later I'm hungry again. It's like eating Chinese food. This results in me snacking a lot. But Percy on the other hand sat next to me, and I swear the kids like a breathing black hole. He ate like five sandwiches in two minutes. He'd just shove them in his mouth whole then swallow, not even bothering to chew. While on the other hand Nico just nibbled at this only sandwich beside me.

As my mouth began to dry, realized I didn't ask for a drink, I didn't want another milkshake, I'd save that for dinner. I thought for a moment then it came to me.

"Auburn water." I said.

"What?" asked Percy his mouth completely full with his sixth sandwich. Half of it spray on me the other half fell out of his mouth.

"Awww," he said looking down at the half eaten sandwich, then he spotted me with the rest of it all over my face. He gulped down what he had left in his mouth, which wasn't much "Sorry."

I wiped off the bits of turkey and Swiss cheese, "Auburn is a town I used to live in central California. We had to move because of my mom's job. It's my favorite place I've ever lived, I had a bunch of friends. Plus, the water tasted amazing there, even the tap. We used to buy the big packs of Arrowhead water bottles, and pour out the original water, just to use it for the bottles for Auburn water."

"Oh, cool," Said Percy though he couldn't seem any less interested. "You finished?"

"Yeah, lets go," I said standing up and watching my plate magically disappear.

"What's the sched.?" I asked.

"today's Wednesday and my schedule's different during the school year so Archery which I usually skip, but we can try that today, then sword fighting, then mythology study, free time, then mortal studies, Dinner, then something special which I'll tell you later, then to bed, so that's it." He said, looking up as he tried to remember offhand.

"So archery? Awesome, I'm pretty good, I went to this one camp two summers ago when I lived in auburn with my two best friends, it was called Camp Augusta, I'm guessing it was named after Augustus Caesar, but anyways an Olympic archer taught me a few tricks."

"Cool. Let's go," Said Percy leading me to the archery range which was in between the armory and the arena, half tucked into the woods. There were ten regular targets and two moving targets.

Percy handed me a small longbow with arrows of dark cherry wood and pinkish feathers. I looked up at him and smiled "perfect."

Nico just hung out behind us, it was weird for him to be so quiet but I figured that's just how he was around Percy.

I looked at the middle target and stood thirty feet away, I remembered where I was to aim, the bottom right on the ground underneath the target. I slipped on some leather archery gloves. Closed one eye, pulled back the string, took one deep breath, and released. A bull's-eye. I was even better than I remembered. All I had to do is visualize myself. But every detail had to be there every leaf and cloud, but if I could see myself doing it I could.

"Wow," breather Percy.

I drew another arrow and let it fly. But before I let it go I pictured it hitting the other arrow so perfectly the it split the first arrow down the middle and when I released the scene replayed in reality.

"Oh my gods Lea, you're amazing if you hadn't already been claimed I would guessed you were Apollo! How do you do it?" Percy blurted.

I explained to him my method, he shrugged and said "It's worth a try."

"He grabbed an even bigger bow than mine. As he drew back I corrected his elbow. Then I heard the sharp _puunct _of an arrow hitting a target and piercing the paper. He was only three rings away from the middle.

"Wow, that works fantastically. That's the first time I've ever hit a target. Well except for this one time I hit one of the moving target but I was aiming for one ten feet away from it, so it doesn't really count."

"That takes skill." I teased.

For the next hour we Percy got continually better and I got 28 consecutive bulls-eyes until Percy sneezed and it broke my concentration. I jumped and the air flew strait up like in Clout Archery, it disappeared into the trees, good luck finding that one.

We heard a chime in the distance, "That's the next activity bell. We have sword fighting in the arena, so it won't be a long walk."

We marched to the arena which looked like a diphilated version of the Coliseum. As we entered I gazed up at the high faded marble walls. I was too busy looking at them to notice the black mass coming towards us. When I looked ahead all I could see was flashing white fangs and gleaming eyes the size of large teacups. A hellhound. I remembered it from my books, and I was charging straight at Percy.

"No!" I yelled. I side stepped in front of Percy, I didn't have a weapon on me to defend myself or him, but my instincts kicked in before I could protest. I raised my hand right in front of the beast's face. I didn't know exactly how that would help but I knew it would. My finger tips glowed pink and the hound began to fun slower and slower as if the ground was turning to molasses and latching onto it's feet. Eventually it keeled over completely and lay on the ground motionless. Then a loud snore issued from where the thing's head was tucked.

Percy turned to me wide eyes "I think you just put my dog to sleep."

"W-was that thing yours?" I stuttered.

"Yeah, that's Mrs. O'Leary. My pet hell-hound" He said.

"Oh, woops."

"Why aren't you tired?" he asked looking at me as if I'd just been lit on fire.

"What?"

"When I use my powers it takes a ton of my energy and afterwards I'm exhausted. You look fine."

I thought for a moment, "Actually, I feel much less tired now, as if I gained energy not lost any."

"That's it!" Percy exclaimed, "You have the ability to take other people's energy away from them, that's why they fall asleep! You steal their energy!"

"Okay, that's nice to know, so sword fighting. Isn't that your thing?" I asked Percy.

"Yeah, but I'll go easy."

"So what sword should I use?" I asked looking around for a spare, there were none.

"Hmmm, I would say use Nico's but only a child of the big three can use stygian iron."

"Then you use his, and I'll use yours." I said.

Percy looked hesitant, "Fine." He pulled a crummy looking ball point pen out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Take off the cap," he said smiling mischievously.

I slowly slid of the black cap, as I did gleaming bronze began to form, and before I could react a glowing sword was in my hand. "Sweet."

Nico unsheathed his sword and handed it to Percy, not saying a thing.

"Okay, when I say go, come at me. We'll just see how you do. Kay?"

"It's on." Percy sword felt balanced in my hand, a bit short but the perfect weight. I hoped sword training at Camp Augusta would come in handy here even if we only used foam swords.

I looked at Percy, he smiled as if to taunt me, but I could see something else in his eyes. He was putting on an act. He was…. Uncomfortable. He didn't want to attack me. He didn't like the feel of Nico's sword. He was…. Scared of me.

"On your mark, get ready, get set-"

I didn't let him finish. I grabbed his arm and swung underneath his legs. Thank the gods for those years of volleyball and softball. I slid through the dust, the world around me in slow motion. Like in those awesome Kung Fu movies I used my momentum to slide into a crouch and flung my self up to my feet. I was behind Percy now, he was o surprised all he did was look back at me with a moment of panic. Then I flung on to him, piggy back riding him, whipped his own sword up to his throat. He stopped struggling. "Game over," I said and let go.

Nico stared at me his mouth wide open in shock.

Percy turned around his arms up in surrender, "Dang Lea, you're a beast."

"Up for a second round?"

"Yeah and this time I won't go easy."

"You mean this time you'll actually move."

He lunged at me drawing Nico's sword forward. The world oozed back into slow motion. My body took over my mind and I jumped using the moving sword like a staircase, jumping up and over Percy. He didn't see it coming for the second time and I put the sword back at his neck.

"I win. Again." I said smoothly.

He turned to face me "Yeah but now I know your strategy."

He lunged, I faked a dive to his right then drew back. He made a swing towards where I was about to go. But I deflected. He swung at my feet I jumped over his blade. He swung right for my neck, I arched my back and watched as the lethal black blade flew over my face. We jabbed, parried, and feinted, he was quick but I was flexible. He knocked my sword of out my hand, and it skidded through the dust. Rage and instincts took over, and I hook punched him right in the right jaw. Something clicked and he dropped his sword and staggered backwards. He looked at me too surprised for words. Clicked his jaw back into it's rightful position, "That was awesome!" he exclaimed breaking out into a grin.

"I didn't mean to," I said.

His jaw line began to turn purple, but luckily he didn't swell.

"You're the best sword fighter I've ever met and I've met a lot of great sword fighters, even the god Ares himself."

"I'm not that good am I?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah how do you do that?" he asked. Dropping Nico's sword on the ground like the dead fish. Nico scowled and picked it up.

I thought for a minute, "I see things in slow motion."

"That's because your ADHD."

"And you know those heat sensors that show, where it's hot and cold?"

"Yeah, the ones that make everything blue green and orange."

"I see like that except for instead of heat, It's you weaknesses and strong spots, but it's not nearly so dramatic, but they just seem to glow differently."

"Okay, that's new," Admitted Percy.

"Another round?" I asked. "I'll go easy on you."

Percy grabbed Nico's sword out of Nico's hands.

"You're going down." And we went into combat.

I won twenty eight more times.

The bell chimed again, Percy turned to me and said "Now for a bit of a break, Mythology."

We sat on the porch of the big house and read books that were written in ancient Greek, we read the classics like Pandora's box, which Percy corrected to Pandora's Pythos, and the tale of Perceus. Then we began the Iliad which by the second chapter had Percy twitching with impatience. I had to translate half the page. So it was informational but boring enough to put me to sleep for weeks.

When the bell finally chimed, we sighed and let the books fall out of our hands and to the ground.

"thanks the gods, that's over, I don't think I could've stood another minute reading about what Helen's wedding dress looked like," I said, "what now?"

"Free time," said Percy putting the books back on their shelves.

"I've been wanting to hear you say that for the past three hours."

"What should we do?" Percy asked.

"Absolutely nothing," I said.

"I know the perfect place."

Percy led the way out of the house and past the dining pavilion. Looking out over the ocean, next to a single oak tree, was a wind tattered old picnic table. There were names, creatures, and hearts carved into every inch of the wood. Percy and Nico sat on either sides of me. Percy sighed long and deep.

"I love it here," he said.

"I'm beginning to."

"I'm going to have to go back to Camp Jupiter tomorrow, they need me."

"Way to be humble," I mocked.

"I'm a praetor there." He explained.

"I don't know what that is."

"There are two main leaders at Camp Jupiter, me and Reyna, we run the camp and all it's activities."

"Ohh, sounds fun," I said sarcastically.

"I don't like choosing sides, Roman or Greek, but I like it better here. It just feels more like home. It's a good thing Jason takes over for me as praetor during the summer, or else I'd go through withdrawals."

"Who's Jason?" I asked.

"A friend, he's a son of Zeus, a praetor before I came to Camp Jupiter."

"Sounds like a cool guy."

"Yeah, he is."

I felt the sudden need to change the subject, seeing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere but Percy's long life story and after mythology class, I don't think I could listen to any more stories about monsters and heroes.

"Do out lives ever go back to normal?" I asked lying down my arms behind my head.

"No, there's always something going on," Said Percy, he leaned back on the table too.

"Awesome."

"I guess, you never get bored," He agreed sighing.

"That's just what I need," I replied.

"Demi-gods can die you know. I've been in many near death experiences even had the world counting on me."

"I know we can die, it's not a video game. Perhaps that's why I'm so good at being a demi-god. Because if I'm bad I know the consequences. I've already had a few near death experiences but I'm sure that's nothing compared to you."

"My whole life is a near death experience."

"Who's that girl?" I asked.

"What girl?"

"The one that there's all the pictures of with you in the Big House."

"Annabeth?"

"Probably."

"She's my girlfriend."

"She seems like a snob."

Percy chuckled lightly, "She can be."

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Athena telling me to keep my mouth shut," He said, "You'll meet Annabeth this summer probably right now she's at her dad's on San Francisco. She's a lot cooler than I'm making her sound. It's weird, in ways you remind me of her though you're almost exact opposites."

"Thank the gods," I stated.

"Hey, that my girlfriend your talking about."

We laid on the table in silence and watched the clouds drift through the sky till the bell chimed."

"Mortal studies time," said Percy.

"Yeah. Math, Science and History! Oh boy," I said sarcastically.

"yeah but It'll let us save up our energy. We have Capture the Flag tonight, against Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, and Apollo. Oh, and your on my team."


	5. Chapter 5 I Fall down the Rabbit hole

5 I Fall Down the Rabbit Hole

Mortal studies was even worse than myth studies. Chiron decided we would work on math today. Nico left early to do, something else. I didn't blame him. Percy and I spent the next hour trying to solve two polynomials. I was better at it, which made me feel kind of bad, him being so many grades ahead of me. The bell rang when we had just begun our third problem. Percy filed away our stuff. I would continue it tomorrow while he was at Camp Jupiter, which didn't seem fair. Then again, being praetor didn't sound like much more fun.

We all ate huge dinners of ribs and Caesar's salad. It was amazing. I ate so much I nearly exploded. When the bell chimed again Percy looked at me and "You need armor."

"Okay, when does the game start."

"Fifteen minutes. Go get something warmer on, it's cold in the woods. But make it light and comfortable, easy to run in. then meet me in front of my cabin."

"Okay," I said, "See you in a few."

I jogged down the hill all the way to my cabin. Threw all of the contents in my bag onto the floor, then picked out my softest pair of regular jeans, a hot pink tank top, and my purple hoodie. I threw them on, tightened my ponytail then rushed to the front of Percy's Cabin. It was weird looking like somebody had just a hunk of a tide pool and shoved it on the front of a building.

Percy was wearing jeans and a orange t-shirt that said CH-B. I'm guessing that was a type of camp shirt.

"Way to go camo," I said.

He had something in his hand it was blue and floppy it looked like a dish towel to me. He glanced at it, grinned, and then slapped it on his head.

I blinked, had I just blacked out, because that happened sometimes, I get stuck in time warps and what feels like two minutes can be hours.

"I don't need camouflage. You really don't when you're invisible," said a voice next to me.

"No way. That's awesome," I exclaimed.

Percy turned visible again. "It's Annabeth's, a gift from her mom, but she's letting me borrow it."

"I want my dad to give me something like that."

"Yeah, me too. Let's go," said Percy.

We walked to the armory, in silence. The air was turning cool and fresh. We walked past the arena. Percy stopped at the armory, I looked at him.

"Let's get you suited up," he said.

We walked in past the strange weapons, it felt like ages since I'd been here, but it was only this morning. Percy walked to the right corner of the room.

"Come on, armor is back here."

Hidden behind all of the swords there was a small beaten up door which Percy rattled the handle of.

"Locked. Darn it, you might have to go armor-less."

I looked at the handle, it was old brass and tarnishing. I looked around. Then I spotted what I needed, a small thin silver knife. I picked it up blew off the dust, and jammed it into the keyhole. Flicked my wrist sideways and with a small click and a creak the door eased open.

"Nice," said Percy in awe.

I walked in, the room was covered in spider webs, I was o good thing there was till some daylight left because the place looked like a horror movie set. Percy went to a chest in the back of the room and rummaged through it.

"Anything?" I asked.

"No, it's all too big."

All of the sudden I felt like someone had shot me with an arrow through the temples. I grimaced and closed my eyes. The second I did the pain stopped and like in a dream I could see something, it was the armory but without Percy and I in it. The image zoomed to a large cherry wood chest with gold silk and brass rivets in the corner it zoomed in and showed the two top rivets sliding inwards, and a small drawer sliding out. Revealing a key with a lotus on the handle.

Then suddenly my eyes shot open, I looked at Percy. He was staring at me, he looked confused and bewildered.

"What happened to you?"

"Vision. Is that normal?" I asked.

"No," he replied.

"Okay," I guess there wasn't anything I could do about it. I looked to the corner of the room and my heart skipped a beat. Coated with dust there was a chest, withered cherry wood, with ripped and faded gold silk, and tarnished brass rivets.

I walked over to it and kneeled down.

"Percy," I asked.

"Huh?"

"What's this?"

"Nobody really knows, Annabeth says it was given to Chiron as a gift many years ago but no one knows what's inside or how to open it."

I took a deep breath and pressed the two top rivets. At first they didn't budge then with a small screech then slowly slid in and as they did the drawer slid out.

On red satin sat the key just like it did in my vision, the brass curled into a lotus flower at the top.

I looked up at Percy and smiled.

"Well Watson, I think we're near to solving this mystery."

Percy looked so shocked that he didn't even move only twitched.

I slid the key into the locked twisted it in a full 360 and the click let me know that it was unlocked. I pushed open the lid and it hit the wall with a deep _thunk._ Inside completely dust free was a breastplate and It was magnificent. Leather that curved smoothly and evenly to a seem where, straps connected it to the back piece. The neckline was a silver necklace almost four inches wide and it cascaded over the shoulders it three metal plates. A lotus was etched it the middle of the neckline was a lotus, swirls curled out in every direction.

Percy finally gained his senses again and said, "H-how did you know?"

"I think this is a gift from my father. I had a vision telling me how to open the chest. I guess he heard my wish. I wonder if it has any cool powers like that hat of yours. Help me get it on will you?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. It might not be for you."

I examined the silver neck-plate, it hooked together at the shoulders on the back right above the border in all-caps Latin there was an engraving _PRIMA ENIM CROURE MORPHEUS. _

"For the first blood of Morpheus," I muttered in translation, "Well, that solves that."

Percy ambled over and helped me with the straps. Though I'm not a very formal dresser, even I had to admit, looking the dusty windows reflection, I looked awesome.

The spiked shoulders made it look tough, but the glossy silver looked elegant especially with the black leather background.

Percy shook his head smiling, "Lea, your going to put the Aphrodite girls to shame."

I felt myself blushing, dude was hot I couldn't deny that, and him telling me I looked good, it was…. Weird.

What sounded like a conch horn, cut through the silence of the forest.

"Game's starting."

We jogged into a clearing in the forest where the other teams were waiting.

"Where have you been Percy? We can't start with out a captain," Said one of the Stoll brothers.

"Just helping Lea with her armor," admitted Percy.

The crowd seemed to part, so that they could see me.

All eyes glued on me.

"Sweet," said a voice from the crowd.

"Nice armor," said Ava stepping forward, "That's got to be real silver."

Cloe stepped out of the crowd too, "I here's your secret weapons," she said handing me a surprisingly heavy satchel. A messenger bag, with a bronze lotus on the latch.

I could tell the entire Hermes' cabin's eyebrows rose when she said "Secret Weapons"

I began to think I'd never need to go shopping again. I'd nearly gained an entirely new outfit today.

"So we've got, the Hephaestus, Demeter, Hermes, and Dionysus cabin, and all the minor's here right?" asked Percy trying to get the attention off me, he could tell how much I hated it.

"All here," said another anonymous voice.

"Good, Dionysus and Demeter , your on border patrol," groans arose from the crowd, "Hephaestus, you protect the flag with the Hermes cabin, the minors and I are all going out for the flag, we'll rondavue at the large boulder by the creek. Got it"

The crowd nodded.

"Lea, stick with me," continued Percy.

"Would have anyways," I replied.

The horn broke through the excited clamor of the crowd. Everyone darted off in a different direction.

Percy waved to me and then disappeared into the brush.

I followed him silently jogging for the next hundred yards. We came to a stream, Percy sloshed through it, as he did his skin seemed to gain color and he had a more confident glow.

I was about to jump in thinking the water was magic then I realized, Son of Poseidon, water, duh.

So I skipped across easily.

We had only gone a few more feet when Percy stopped abruptly and dove behind a bush.

I skidded to a halt beside him.

"Aphrodite's on border patrol."

At first I thought he was talking about the goddess herself, which created a really strange metal image, but the realized he meant the cabin.

I peered over the bush to see three, girls putting on lip-gloss and fixing their hair. _Productive_, I thought. Just then four Ares cabin kids walked up the Aphrodite girls scowling.

"they've sent Percy, he'll be here any minute now and your just standing around. For all we know he could be watching us this very second," yelled one of the Ares boys.

I raised an eyebrow at Percy, we stifled laughs under out breaths.

Just then something caught my eye, far off in the distance I could see something red and gold whipping in the wind. I pointed at it.

"The flag," whispered Percy, "Okay, We'll detour around them just stay low and stay quiet."

"

"Okay," I said, and then got a flash of inspiration and dashed out into the clearing.

The Ares kids whipped around to glare at me, "You're not on out team."

"Where did you get that armor, it 's way to pretty for a shabby girl like you." Said one of the Aphrodite girl her lip curled into a smirky snarl.

"Hey guys," I said, "Just wanted to let you know, that flag is mine, and it's gonna be all your fault."

With that I sprinted in the direction of the red silk.

I could hear their loud footsteps behind me, they were calling or reinforcements, I glanced next to me, Someone was there.

"What were you thinking?" said a bodiless voice.

"You distract them, but stay invisible, I'll get the flag. Trust me."

I heard Percy sigh, but I could tell he stayed back waiting for the other campers, who weren't far behind. I just hope this wouldn't turn into a cliché horror, movie because I couldn't afford to trip.

There was only two Athena kids guarding the flag, before they could even move I snatched the flag and sprinted to the left. Thank the gods, for middle school track practice.

As I felt my feet get heavier and heavier I noticed the trees getting thicker and the same familiar coffee soil squished beneath my feet. I ducked behind a tree to catch my breath, shouting that was once far in the distance came closer and closer. My breaths were short and panicky, why had I felt the urge to be the hero. I wanted to be appreciated so bad. Maybe it was because I knew this is where I belonged and I didn't want to screw it up like I always do. I couldn't let them catch me. I shakily stood up. Then, I noticed something. The clearing I was in, was much more than familiar.

I spun around and looked at the tree, there was a knot the perfect size at shoulder height. I placed my hand on it, with a faint _sshhhkiillt, _I was engulfed into the tree, and the hole opened up. I could here the voices coming closer, they would be in the clearing any second. I dove into the underworld and darkness swallowed me.

My eyes took a few minutes to adjust. I was in a huge cavern, and when I say huge, I mean you could fit the entire city of Sacramento in here. I was on the side of this fishbowl like black cave. I windy path was carved in the midnight colored stone. I didn't dare go any further. I was safe here, well safe from the other team, maybe not from anything else. Then the thought dawned upon me, what was more dangerous, twenty other demi-gods or the underworld, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. They would have passed by now. I turned around. I noticed the stone Nico had told me about, a simple black lump that lie right next to the entrance, which had closed behind me.

I stepped on it, it slid into the ground but nothing else happened, I tried again, same result. Panic began to set in, I began to frantically step on it. Nothing happened. Anxiety struck me, how would I get out, if the entrance was block? Who would find me? When? How? I pulled out a fork from my satchel, bronze and sparkly, it cast a little light, but It was like being in a jail cell with a night-light, comforting but other than that, no help whatsoever.

I sat down still clutching the fork, with my back against the wall, not pun intentional. Henry always said to think before you act. So I sat and caught my breath and regained my wits.

I closed my eyes, and thought, if anyone were to find me it would be Nico. Nico, Nico, Nico, I repeated the name over and over in my head.

His face flashed into my mind, It was as if some one had thrown me into a cold lake, but I could see what was around me, instead of water, I was in the forest again, Nico was there walked with his head down and his hands in his pockets, kicking at the dirt.

Was I dreaming?

"Nico!" I called out.

He jumped, "Lea?"

"Nico?" I asked wondering what in Hades was happening.

"Lea? Where are you?" he asked.

"Your entrance to the underworld. I'm trapped."

Then I snapped out of it and was thrown back into the cavern. I felt like someone had shook me awake. I dug my fork into the ground and clutched onto the red fabric of the flag.

Then behind me I heard a sound of grinding like rock on rock and the rock behind my back disappeared. I fell out into sunlight.

"Lea?" asked a quizzical voice.

"Whaddup?" I asked.

Opening my eyes to see Nico staring down at me.

He helped me up and I shoved the flag into his hand, we better get this to the border.

He grinned crazily, "Then you'll explain."

"Sure."

We jogged back as quickly as we could, my lungs felt like they were about to collapse. I didn't even both jumping over the stream I just sloshed right through it. When we reached the other side I crumpled to the dirt my legs failed me but I didn't care we'd won.

Six of our teammates emerged from the bushes and began screaming their heads off as soon as they saw Nico grasping the flag. Looking back on it, It's a joyous blur, Chiron clopped into the clearing and declared us winners. My teammates tackled me with hugs and the Ares' kids looked about ready to pulverize me. I didn't care I'd won fair and square.

Nico and I walked back to my cabin and collapsed on the porch steps, Percy had decided to go to the campfire. I skipped out, my lungs would definitely not allow me to sing.

I leaned up against the railing Nico directly across from me. We watched as the sun set over the sparkling water.

"So what happened?" he asked.

"In the underworld?"

"Yeah."

"I went into the passage and the door closed behind me, when I tried to get back out it wouldn't open, no matter how many times I pressed the rock. So I closed my eyes and thought of you," I paused feeling my face get hot, "And suddenly it was like I was watching a security camera video of you."

"I saw you."

"What?" I choked out.

"First there was this sharp pain in my forehead then when I closed my eyes, I could see you sitting in the underworld digging your fork into the soil and grasping the flag like a life line. It was like a vision, "he paused to think, "Like a dream."

I was thinking so hard my head hurt, How did I do that? How could I possibly set up mental video chat, without trying? I uncomfortably fiddled with my armor, centered on the neck plate, was a small pink gem, a little smaller than a penny but triangle with the point facing downwards. I pressed on it, and like everything else in this crazy demi-god world, it slid inwards.

The silver neck-plate went limp, and the leather softened, I was now wearing a silver and black satin blouse, the silver draped shoulders were made of silver fabric with a lotus swirl pattern, and there was a single pink jewel fastened to the middle.

"Oh, I have got to get this off." I said whipping the beautiful but dreadful shirt over my head, I had my tank-top underneath.

"It transforms in mortal mode," Said Nico.

"Why does mortal mode have to be so hideous?" I asked holding the thing like a dirty rag.

Nico laughed quietly, amused by my obvious dislike for high fashion. T-shirts, or tanks, and jeans, that's just how I roll.

I kicked open my door and threw the blouse in the corner of the room. The sun had fully set now, and my room began to have an eerie glow like everything else does at night.

"See you tomorrow Nico," I called out the door, but when a peeked my head around the frame he was already gone. I flopped down onto my lower bunk and a wave of sleep engulfed me.


	6. Chapter 6 My New Friend Gets Possesed

6 My New Friend Get Possessed

Nearly four months passed, Nico and I trained and trained and trained. Percy stopped by twice more and we won Capture the Flag twenty-one more times, we were undefeatable. But other than that nothing else happened, no strange monster attacks or disturbances. Ava, Cloe, and I had painted the walls of my cabin with poppies of all different colors. Camp life got boring, even with all of the strange activities.

No weird dreams, and I finally realized that this was what life was like for a normal demi-god, I was finally normal. I couldn't of hated it anymore.

December came and nothing had changed, not even the weather. It was still warm and sunny, which I thought was weird for New York. Percy had come back for the holidays and I would be leaving in two weeks to celebrate Christmas with my mom and Henry. It only struck me then, that I hadn't seen my mom in four months.

Nico, Percy and I had just come back from the campfire.

"What was the worst monster you've ever faced?" I asked Percy.

He thought for a minute, and then said, "Either Mrs. Dodds or the Minotuar. Both times I had no idea what was going on."

"Who's Mrs. Dodds?" I asked.

"An old algebra teacher of mine," he replied.

"Terrifying," I remarked sarcastically.

"It turns out she was a fury."

"Oh," I said throwing my converse onto my porch.

Nico climbed up and sat on the porch railing lazily.

"The gods have been quiet lately and Dionysus is still at Olympus. I wonder if something's wrong," he said looking up at the stars.

"It sure doesn't seem like it," said Percy, "but with the gods, you never really know."

"I kind of wish something was wrong, just so that I would have a bit more to think about," I sighed.

"I know the feeling. It's as if all the monsters have gone into hibernation," reasoned Percy, "Well, I'm wiped out, see you guys in the morning."

He strolled of in the direction of his cabin, "Sweet dreams," I called to him.

He turned back to me and smiled, "With your blessing I'm sure I will."

Like always when I turned back to say goodnight to Nico, he was gone.

I walked inside my cabin, sighed, and pulled my pajamas on with as much enthusiasm as a corpse.

When I crawled into bed, it took hours for me to even shut my eyes. But when I did finally fall asleep, I dreamed for the first time at camp.

But it was the same dream as always. The clocked woman, she was back but this time she was younger, much younger, her skin wasn't wrinkled and as she stood up slowly it was with the grace and elegance of youth. Her long talon-like fingernails were paint such a dark blue that they looked black against the night sky. Her pale skin sparkled like those vampire's from those weird movies, and though she didn't wear any jewelry, except for a back crescent moon and star necklace, but you could tell by her black satin cloak she had the wealth to buy a kingdom. She lifted her head, and even though I couldn't see her yes through the veil, I could tell she was staring straight at me.

_Oh child, so naïve. You soon with take back you wish. I will give you plenty to think about. Pain, Suffering, Loss, Strife, Grief. _

Her voice echoed in my mind. The stars on her clock seemed to glow more brightly than ever. Her deep red lips curled into a smirk.

_Enjoy your time, soon the sun will not rise for you, little demi-god._

I woke up sweating and feverish. My breaths were coming unsteadily and I glanced around my cabin for anything unusual. Nothing. I sat on my bed for a few minutes waiting for my breathing to return to it's normal pace, but it never stopped it's fast pop-song rhythm. I looked at the flowers painted onto my wall, even they looked slightly eerie, well as eerie as bright pink, red, magenta, and purple poppies can get. I hastily swung my legs over the edge of my bed and stood up trying to gain my balance. Once I felt stable I slung on my hoodie and rushed out the door, not even bothering to put my shoes on.

I strided through the cabin area and realized how late it really was, not a sound was heard except for the wind through the woods and over the fields and the waves crashing on the shore of Long Island Sound. Not a movement from any of the cabins. I stopped between Nico and Percy's cabins, who should I talk to? Percy's been a demigod longer but Nico was more informational.

I decided to go with Nico, he had a pretty good concept of demi-god powers.

I walked up to his cabin, two torches lit with Greek fire illuminated the front of his cabin a deep greenish color. I could tell where he based his cabin design off of, I was made from the same stone as the underworld, slick black obsidian that crawled up the cabin in shards. I pushed open the door with both hands, It was surprisingly light. Nico lay asleep in the single bunk of his cabin. He looked so peaceful, it was such a shame I had to wake him up. He looked so much younger than usual so much less tense, so naturally I grabbed his shoulders and shook him awake.

He jumped up attentively and as soon s he saw me gave me the ultimate "What now?" look.

"What is it, Lea?" he asked groggily.

"I had a dream," I said then realized how lame it sounded.

But Nico obviously didn't think so, his eyes widened and he asked, "What happened?"

I explained as quickly and as accurately as I could. Unlike other dreams, this one wasn't illusive I was as clear as a memory of yesterday.

Nico furrowed his brow, "That was definitely an immortal speaking, but whether it was a god or titan, I don't know. What did she say about sunrise, that could be a clue."

"She said 'Enjoy your time, soon the sun will not rise for you, little demi-god'." I replied shivering just thinking about it.

"Hmmmm," Nico was deep in thought, searching his metal library for any hits., "It was clearly a female and I'm pretty sure it was a titan. But other than that I don't know, we'll talk to Chiron in the morning. You can stay here for the night."

"Do I want to?" I asked teasing him, trying to keep my spirits up.

But I was too tired to leave so I climbed into the top bunk and slid under the black satin sheets. I fell asleep a little after I heard Nico's breathing slow, signaling that he was asleep.

Luckily I didn't dream again. When I woke up the cabin was still dark but I'm pretty sure that was because the cabin didn't have any windows to let the sunlight in.

"Nico," I whispered, "You awake?"

"Barely," he groaned.

"Let's go," I said, "It's creepy in here."

"Thank you."

I jumped off the top bunk not even bothering to use the ladder.

"I'll meet you at the big house, bring Percy. I'm gonna change." I said rushing out the door into the warm sunlight and fresh air. I ran barefoot, to my cabin and changed into jeans and the camp shirt, with my hot pink high tops, I didn't really feel like consulting Chiron with my pajamas on.

I jogged over to the big house, Nico was waiting on the big white wrap-around porch.

"Percy wasn't in his cabin," said Nico.

We quietly walked up the steps to the big house, I could tell by the sun that it was about ten o'clock in the morning.

Nico pushed open the screen door. It smacked itself back into place with a loud _clack _after we stepped through. I heard voices from the family room. Nico lead me down the hallway. In the family room were four people three of them I knew.

Percy sat on the couch next to a girl with fire-truck red hair and a tied camp shirt her jeans were all ripped up and drawn on, and Chiron stood next to Henry they all were talking and laughing with the, Percy was the first to notice us.

"Hey Lea. Hey Nico. What's up?" he asked.

"Oh nothing much just came to see Chiron about something."

"Okay, well first," he said standing up, "Lea, meet Rachel she's the oracle here at camp and one of my personal friends."

Rachel stood up and smiled at me her bright green eyes sparkled she walked over and shook my hand, "Hi, I'm Rachel, Percy's-"

Then she cut herself off, her entire body went rigid.

The whole room seemed to darken and her eyes rolled back into her head, but when she opened them again the were glowing completely green, a green smoke coiled out of her mouth.

I began to back up, this was seriously freaky. Everyone else was frozen too, staring in awe. I was about the scream to get them to snap out of it or something when a voice echoed around the room:

_You shall go to the land where Apollo's ride ends,_

_Leave with two but arrive with one of your friends,_

_Trust scales of blue but not eyes of gold,_

_And defeat the night and titan of old._

The ancient voice hung in the air until Rachel's body went limp and she fell backwards Percy caught her and laid her on the couch. The room was back to normal again. Everyone looked at me.

"Okay," I said, "What just happened?"

"Rachel is our oracle as Percy said, she just issued a prophecy." Explained Chiron.

"So that's normal?"

"It is usually the sign of the gods assigning a quest."

"A quest? Aren't those like really rare?"

"Not so much anymore," sighed Chiron, "Percy has been on almost seven of them."

"Lucky me," said Percy a hint of sarcasm his voice.

"Lea, you said you wanted to talk to Chiron about something," said Henry.

"Yeah, I had this dream last night."

I repeated the dream again. Chiron began to look worried.

"Have you ever dreamt anything like this before?" asked Henry.

"Yeah all the time, but she was older before and she never talked."

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Henry.

"Because I thought it was just a dream, they stopped as soon as I found out I was demi-god."

"Lea, you do realize that this cannot just be a coincidence," said Chiron, "I believe that a certain titan is rising now and her main target is you."

"Another titan?" asked Percy.

"Yes, Percy, I believe all of the titans will awaken again sometime in the near future, all we can do is be prepared."

"So what does this whole quest thing entail?" I asked.

"You head to the land where Apollo's ride ends, whatever that means?"

"I think I might know, actually. Doesn't Apollo ride a sun chariot across the sky to give us day?" I said.

"Actually it's a pretty sick Mustang," added Percy.

"Okay, so his ride ends at sunset and the sun sets in the west right?" Everyone nodded, "So we head west, back home, to California."

"I'll bet it's San Francisco, Mount Tam or should I say Mount Othrys," said Percy.

"Let's talk about this on the porch, I think we all need a bit of fresh air," said Chiron.

He led us down the hall and out the door, we left Rachel on the couch Percy said that she'd wake up soon. We all sat around the small table on the porch. Campers were coming out of their cabins now and some were heading to the dining hall to get breakfast, other were doing yoga or playing some morning volleyball. They had no idea what was going on over here.

"When do we leave and how do we prepare?" I asked.

"Well, most quests leave the next day and Argus can take you into the city from there you can find a bus station and begin your journey."

"Yeah, because that worked so well the first time," said Percy sarcastically referring to his first quest.

"But first you must choose two companions to go with you, Lea," continued Chiron.

"That's easy, Percy and Nico," I suggested.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. Two children of the big three and a Primum cruor. You'd be irresistible to monsters."

"I can't think of anyone else to go with me, besides Cloe and Ava. But I can't bring three people can I?"

"I'm afraid it is against tradition."

"I've done it before," said Percy.

"You have done many risky things before that does not mean you should do them again, Percy," mused Chiron.

"Then it's settled, Percy Nico and I will go," I finalized.

"I'm not sure if I want to after that whole 'leave with two arrive with one' thing," stated Percy.

"Demi-gods don't usually die on quests do they?"

Everybody glanced at everyone else but me, avoiding answering my question.

"Errr," said Percy.

"Okay that's not good, but anyways, what else did the prophecy say?" I asked.

"Something about trust scales of blue but not eyes of gold," Said Nico.

"So if we meet something with blue scales, that's good thing, but if we meet something with gold eyes, that's a bad thing," I reasoned.

"It was the last line that I find to be the most important," said Chiron.

"And defeat the night and titan of old," said Percy, "what do you think it means?"

"I believe I know who the titan is that is rising now," he began, "Lea, I think it may be your grandmother, Nyx the titan of night."


	7. Chapter 7 I Become an Exterminator

7 I Become an Exterminator

I packed what I felt I needed into my zebra striped duffel bag, which wasn't much, just a three camp shirts, four tank tops, two pairs of jeans, jean shorts, sweats, and two pairs of converse and then a bag of toiletries.

Nico and I spent the day on the camp's only computer looking for available bus routes, trains, or anything besides a plane because Zeus would probably blow us out of the sky the second we took off. Nico and Percy weren't allowed in Zeus' domain.

Percy was training all day long and by the time we finished dinner we decided we should have an early bedtime than usual. I crashed on my top bunk and was about to say goodnight to Nico who was about to walk outside when I said "Nico, can you stay here," I just kind of blurted it out unintentionally, "You know in case of another dream."

He smiled reassuringly at me, "Sure."

He slept on the bottom bunk and I fell asleep almost automatically, which was surprising because my nerves were at an all time high.

When I woke up the camp was completely silent even though the sun had risen. Nico was gone but there was a note scrawled out on a scrap of paper _my cabin _was all it said.

I shouldered my bag and headed to Nico's cabin, I figured he wanted me to meet him there. I looked back into my cabin, I knew it would be a while since I saw it again. It made me sad, this was my bedroom in my extremely large home, I didn't want to leave it behind. But I knew I couldn't take it with me, that would be crazy and physically impossible.

I hiked over to Nico's cabin, the campers who were outside stared at me, the ones that I knew called out "good luck," and other things like that, but most just stared. I didn't mind anymore I was used to being the center of attention nowadays.

Nico's door was unlocked and I pushed it open, Nico sat on his bed playing with a small black figurine, the Hades figurine, I knew where it came from. Percy had told me. When Nico saw me he hastily shoved it in his aviator jacket's pocket and said "Oh hey there, I didn't see you come in."

"So you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah, just about. This is my first quest too, ya know," he said and I could tell he was just as nervous as I was, "there's something I want to give you. I was going to give it to you for Christmas but I think you'll need it sooner."

He went to his drawers and pulled out a package wrapped in black silk with a pink satin bow. The perfect touch.

I felt myself blushing uncontrollably. I slowly pulled off the pink ribbon, and even though I 'm not a girly person tied it around my ponytail. I drew back the silk to reveal a glinting blade. In my hands lay a longsword that shined like the morning sun.

"It was made it the forges of Hades, especially for you. It's made from both imperial gold and celestial bronze, both rare and nearly impossible to combine, the hilt is obsidian and silver with two pink rubies from Persephone's garden blessed by the goddess herself. This is why I've been disappearing so much at night. To check it's progress. I hope it's weighted right"

I started in awe at the shining blade it had these little circular pieces cut out at four parts of the blade and it looked absolutely sick.

"Nico, It's-" I gasped, "Beautiful, amazing, awesome," blurted and then regained my wits, "It's perfect."

I threw my arms around him and squeezed the air right out of him.

He was blushing like crazy when I let go of him, "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it. Now let's go Percy'll be waiting," said and shoved open the door with my shoulder, not easing my grip on my new sword's hilt even a little.

Campers gasped when they saw my new weapon, it clearly stole the show.

Nico and I walked to Thalia's pine together as we did I spun my sword around and tested it for different things: grip, speed, weight, and functionality. It passed every test and I looked awesome spinning it around.

Percy, Chiron, Henry, and Argus were all waiting for us at Half Blood Hill.

"Nice sword," said Percy and Henry in union as we walked up.

"Nico had it made for me," I replied.

Chiron's eyebrows rose and he smiled at Nico.

"It's very you," said Henry.

"Yeah it is," I agreed.

"I'm so very sorry Lea, but I have an archery class to teach soon, your breakfast has already been packed and you can eat it on the ride. Good luck sweetheart," and he bear hugged me. He had tears of both joy, sadness, and pride in his eyes, "I know you can do this."

"Bye dad," I said, just because I knew how much it meant to him, he was and always would be my real dad, no matter my bloodline.

He hiked down the hill and only looked back twelve times.

"You ready?" asked Percy.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied.

"Wish you the best and may the gods be ever in your favor," said Chiron, he bowed his head to Percy then trotted down the hill.

Argus led us down the hill and we loaded into a large white van. I found it kind of ironic that my bag was pink, Percy's was blue, and Nico's black of course. It' seemed as if we had iconic colors.

Wrapped in tin foil was our celebratory breakfast of French Toast which I enjoyed very much even though my stomach was doing back flips.

As we rode down the bumpy road, Nico turned to me and said "Lea, can I see your sword?"

I handed it to him. He pressed the top ruby and the sword began to shrink and compact, what was left was a small circular gold plate, with the three rubies making a clover shape, they had shrunk to, from the size of drachmas to dimes. A long gold cord hung from the back making a loop.

Nico placed it in my hand, "Mortals don't usually trust teens with swords."

I hung it around my neck.

"Just press the top one again for it to go back to a sword," he said.

"Let's just hope it works better than your last secret magic button," I said.

Percy looked at me confused, but I didn't tell him, that was between Nico and I.

Argus dropped us off at the first bus station he could find, which just so happened to be in front of that museum from the movies, ya know Night of the Museum.  Even though I couldn't read the sign I knew it read American Museum of Natural History.

Percy went over to the bus stop and squinted at the small sign on the side of it.

"Lea," he called to me, "Can you try to read this."

I loped over feeling kind of strange carrying my bag around with me.

He was looking at the bus schedule, it took me a few minutes but I finally deciphered that the first bus arrives at ten. Two hours from then.

"What should we do?" asked Percy.

I watched as the museum doors slid open.

"We go learn something about natural history," I suggested, shrugging.

We walked into the heavily air conditioned main hall, it was just like in the movie, the spacious area with a giant T-rex welcoming you at the entrance, the circular desk with the globe. Warm light filled the room shining in through the windows.

"Well, I don't want to have to carry this around for two hours," I muttered.

I walked up to the front desk, there was a blonde chick in her mid-twenties, talking on the phone, "I'm sorry sir your services are just to expensive. I'm sure we can find someone else but thank you for your time."

She hung up, then turned to me, "How can I help you?"

"Hi, I was just wondering if you could hold my friends and I's bags up here at the front desk. Our hotel's not open for check-in yet and the bags are kind of heavy," I lied easily, I don't mind lies that don't hurt anybody.

"Oh sure, that would be fine," She replied.

Percy grinned at me, surprised at my skills.

She tucked our bags in a cabinet behind us, "Your lucky that today is free admission for young adults. Is their anything else you would like help with?"

"No thank you, I think we'll just browse."

We were the first people in the museum so it was empty except for employees who scurried around ignoring us.

Two men were arguing out front of one of the EMPLOYEES ONLY doors.

"This rat infestation is getting crazy we have to do something about it, they're eating some of the exhibits! These rats are not normal they're the size of cats and they seem to shred through the fabric of everything and they've broken some of the protection cases!" cried out one.

These didn't sound like rats to me.

"But we can't pay for their removal, Justine's called three exterminators and all of them were over two-thousand dollars. We don't have that kind of money, and it's almost like were paying to hire the Ghostbusters or something!" said the taller one.

"Excuse me sirs," I interrupted, "Did you say something about rats?"

"Oh, don't worry miss. Were solving the problem right now," said the short one.

"I was just wondering if you wanted some help. My father is an exterminator, but unfortunately he's in Maine right now, but I'm sure I could help you at least identify the species," I lied. Something told me that it wasn't rats they were dealing with.

The two men stared in disbelief at me, "That's would be amazing," said the short one who's name tag I figured out to say in all caps: JIM.

Jim led us down the hallway to the Primitive Civilizations gallery. Percy and Nico followed in silence, I could tell they were impressed with my social skills.

"I last saw them in here," said Jim, "Good luck, oh, and watch out they're vicious."

He rolled up to show a bite mark on his arm. They're four puncture marks like a dog bite, rat bites didn't look like that. I knew for sure, rat's have two large front teeth not canine teeth.

He strolled out of the exhibit and the second he turned around the corner I took and small quiet step forward, and listened very carefully. In the corner of the room I heard faint scuttling and sniffling sounds.

I pulled my necklace off over my head and pressed the top ruby. My sword began to fold out, Percy pulled of his pen cap revealing Riptide, Nico pulled his sword out of the shadows.

Then suddenly the creature burst out from behind a display case holding a straw hut. There was around thirty of the things. They were the size of small cats, but I could see how the mist disguised them as rats. Even though the were bald and had reddish skin and stood up on they're hind legs, they had the same rattish face, limbs, and feet. They're small pure black eyes glinted evilly, and they growl and yipped baring they're wolf like teeth. It was like facing mutant Chihuahuas.

There was to many off them too fight off. We'd have to trap them somehow.

"Split!" I yelled and sprinted down the nearest hallway. It led onto a balcony over looking the main entrance. I looked for any other way but down. There was nice people down there.

I reeled across the tiled floor and turned down a hallway whose wall were made of redwood. After a few twists and turns I ended up at a T'd off section. I knew the place the second I saw it. The Easter Island statue stood staring at me. I stopped to look at it. I half expected it to come alive and ask me for gum. But I didn't have any and it already had so many pre-chewed pieces shoved up it's nose that I figured he would be good for the next few years.

I could hear the scraping of rat-beast toenails coming down the hall in my direction. I couldn't decide which was to go because the both were dead ends and I was about out of time.

I crouched behind the Easter Island head, and waited.

I peeked around the head just in time to see the coming there was only about ten of them but hey looked hungry, really hungry.

I was stuck and out of options, the an idea came to me a strange and desperate idea, and then I did the grossest thing ever. I shoved my hand up the statues nose and grabbed a wad of the gum. I stuck to my fingers and I hastily shook it off my hand so that it landed on the ground a few feet away. The demons were about to catch up to me, but my bait worked. They stopped sniffed it, crouching over it with their arms, draping like an apes, and then they tore into it.

After a few seconds it was gone, but whatever I had done worked.

The creatures sat confused as their teeth began to stick together with the cement like gum. They sat down on their hindquarters and like dogs with peanut butter, they sat dumbly cross-eyed trying to figure out what was wrong with their mouths .

They opened and closed they're mouths trying to rid of the restraints on their jaws, but it was futile and it was my opportunity.

I jumped out from behind my hiding spot and took one wide swing with my new sword and wiped all ten of them out, they crumbled into red dust.

I convinced myself it wasn't that gross then grabbed the remaining gum from the statue, muttered a "Thanks," to it and sprinted back the way I'd come.

Percy and Nico were hacking at hem on one of the balconies, the employees staring at them in horror and surprise.

I ran up to them and tossed the multi-colored wad of gum in front of the creatures and they did the same thing as the first: paused, sniffed, and devoured.

Percy and Nico looked at me for a second confused, then they saw what the creatures reaction was, and within a few minutes there was nothing but dust left.

Jim who was only ten feet away pointed at us and stuttered "Y-ya-you just," but he was to shocked to finish.

"Guess what guys, you just had a minor Norwegian Wood Rat, infestation, but don't worry it's all taken care of and guess what? We did it all for free! Good cause right? Good day." I yelled and raced down the stairs. Percy and Nico followed, Percy jumped and slid over the counter of the front desk grabbed our bags, chucked the to us and we sprinted out the door.

Surprisingly there was a bus waiting for us there.

We loaded in, chose a compartment near the back, shoved our bags in the cabinets above our heads, and sat one the benches across from each other. It was a strange looking bus with little compartments like old trains, with two benches and a fold down table, it kind of reminded me of the Hogwarts Express. It had little sliding glass doors with draw in curtains for privacy. Each compartment was like six ft by six ft. I was weird but very comfortable.

"That was interesting," said Percy, "Not a bad first encounter though."

"What were those things?" I asked.

"Kobaloi, mischievous demonic creatures that tend to torment people by destroying places of great knowledge and rarity," said Nico, "So in other words museums."

"I'd say were off to a good start. We still have our stuff," said Percy.

"I need a nap," I said.

"I think we should all rest while we can, we might not get a lot of sleep in the next few days. I have a feeling this quest has a deadline so we better be in a good condition for a fast pace."

"Deadline?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm guessing we have till sunset of the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. It only makes sense," said Percy.

"Great," I muttered sarcastically.

I looked out the window and began to think about how wrong this quest could go. I'm guessing Percy and Nico were deep in thought too, because none of heard the bus driver announce over the loudspeaker, "Hello everyone to the Suite Rides bus line. I hope ya'll are comfy because were on a two day route to Buffalo and we only make two stops. Bathrooms in the back. I'll give more info later."

We were supposed to be on the bus to Washington D.C.


	8. Chapter 8 We Save a Fish Girl

8- We Meet a Fish-Girl

The bus ride was long and chilly as we cruised up the New York border, for what felt like days but was only a few hours. Percy and I spent the time going through monster flashcards. An idea I came up with. We'd write a monsters name on one side and their description and weaknesses on the other.

Example:

Minotuar

A large hairy half-man half-bull with large horns and bristly reddish brown hair. Tend to be slow and dumb, when fighting quickly change directions to confuse it.

After a while it got so boring that I didn't realize that I wasn't saying the monster name out loud but Percy was in so much of a daze he just flipped the card after a few seconds.

Nico took out a notepad and started scrawling out our route, he'd reference a map every few minutes and ask me to read the city names.

I began to notice something was wrong when we crossed onto highway Eighty-one. Which from the map I could tell was far from where we were supposed to be headed, but I figured the driver knew where he was going and this was just a shortcut with less traffic. Then bus made a stop at a Raley's for lunch, Percy got a all meat delis sub sandwich, Nico got a simple BLT, and I when for a cheddar bacon paninis, As I told you before, I l-o-v-e paninis.

All of us must have been pretty oblivious, especially Percy, because we never saw any of the Welcome to Williamsport signs. Percy spent most of his time from then on out pacing the length on the bus, he obviously couldn't sit still. At around three o'clock in the after noon Nico dozed off and slowly shifted in his sleep to a point where hid head was resting on my shoulder, I let him stay there, I honestly didn't mind.

When the sun began to set the driver announced:

"Okay folks, were ahead of schedule coming up on Corning and my partner Rick here is going to take over the driving for the night. We've just set up the dinner buffet I hope ya'll like soup. I f you reach under your benches there'll be a lever to release your beds for the night. That's all, thank you."

"Corning?" asked Percy, "That's upstate New York."

"I'll talk to the driver while you guys get dinner, Chicken noodle for me, if they have it," I said and we slid open the door from our compartment.

I walked up to the very front of the bus, the new driver was sitting in the front seat staring at the highway intently.

"You said we were headed for Corning, isn't that a bit off route?" I asked him.

He didn't break eye contact with the road but he replied, "Nope, little miss, it's right on route we always take the quickest and most convenient route we can when heading to Buffalo, traffic can be a troll."

"Buffalo?" I asked, " I thought this was the Overnight Bus to D.C."

"D.C.? No little Lady were headed for Buffalo, nearest big city to Niagara Falls, D.C. is the opposite direction. That bus left at ten. We left at nine."

It was only then that I realized we had gotten on the wrong bus, no wonder it was so early.

I cursed in ancient Greek under my breath in ancient Greek and stormed down the hall.

I slammed open the cabin door and closed it so hard that it made a loud _clack _noise.

Percy eyes widened with fear, "What's up, Lea?" he asked hesitantly.

"Were on the wrong bus," I replied sitting on the bench next to Nico.

Percy handed me my soup, at least he got the right one, I live off Chicken Noodle Soup in the winter.

"What?" he asked leaning forwards.

"Were headed for Buffalo, not D.C. We got on the wrong bus because we were in such a hurry," I explained.

"Don't freak out Lea, by this time on my last quest I'd already blown up a bus and met Medusa. We still have nine days till the winter solstice," said Percy.

"Wish we could shadow travel," I said and Percy looked at me light I'd just imploded, "Yeah, I'm that desperate to get this over with."

"Nico! Why can't we just shadow travel?" asked Percy and I realized why he looked at me like that and started to feel kinda stupid.

"First of all I can't shadow travel with two of you, I'm not that strong and secondly, it would be too dangerous. Nyx's domain is also in the shadows, we'd be vulnerable to her grasp," he explained.

I sighed and slurped down the rest of my soup, then tossed the Styrofoam cup into the waste bin.

"The bus doesn't make any stops till Buffalo so we might as well get some sleep. We did pay for this after all," said Percy standing up and pulling the lever under his chair which caused the seat of the bench to slide forward and the backrest of the bench to slide nest to it, making a small one person bed. I did the same.

"I'll sleep on the floor," said Nico, "I've slept in a lot worse places before."

I didn't bother asking I just threw him the extra pillows that were stashed in the cabinets above. I layed in the small cot-like uncomfortable bed and watch Percy as he drifted into sleep, he looked so peaceful, breathing slowly and quietly with his lips curled up into a calm smile.

I fell asleep listening the _whirrr _of passing cars.

I was back on the dark hilltop, Nyx was in full standing position now, her arms spread out inviting me into her lethal embrace.

_Lea, my young grandchild you know so little about this quest but your friend was wise to not travel by the roads of darkness for they're are mine now._

When she spoke it echoed around in the open air and hung there till her next words spilled from her scarlet lips.

_You shall never make it home for my minions are coming for you now. Not even the gods can help you. Sweet dreams._

She faded into the blackness her laughed echoing as she disappeared. I knew I still had a few seconds of dream left so I swept my eyes around the landscape trying memorize my surroundings. Something was vaguely familiar about the surrounding snow capped mountains. I didn't like it.

When I woke up it was still dark out but I could tell at least eight hours had passed because when I looked out the window the first rays of sunlight were just beginning to peek over the horizon. I sat on my bed and tried to recall where I had been in the dream. It was definitely the highest mountain I'd ever been on, it dwarfed all the surrounding peaks. The land around it was fairly sparse but in the distance there was evergreen forests the stretched off into the distance. But I couldn't tell where I knew it from, perhaps a movie.

I looked at the map, no big cities for the next three-hundred miles, Columbus Ohio was our best shot for a train but getting there would be hard.

Percy woke up first and I handed him the map and we sat in silence till Nico woke up. Percy's wrist watch said that it was seven o'clock.

We asked the first driver where the nearest national train station was and he said that our best bet was Columbus.

We plotted a route From Buffalo to Cleveland, and down to Columbus.

After packing up we waited the next three hours until we arrived at Buffalo. The driver announced that there was a half-hour public bus ride to Niagara Falls.

Percy turned to me and said, "Let's check em out. Who knows, we might find our way west."

Buffalo was huge, well not that huge compared to New York but I expected a small suburban town. This was like someone had taken a piece of downtown New York and placed it three-hundred miles away. We caught the first bus and I made sure it was the right one, wouldn't want anything like that to happen again.

The bus ride was boring but when we turned the corner exposing the view of the falls, all of the waiting was worth it. I've seen some pretty impressive falls before but this was extraordinary. It was like the entire Atlantic Ocean was pour itself over this shelf. We took our bags with us, Percy offered to carry mine because his was a backpack and his hands were free. We loaded off the buss which had left us at a view of the falls from above the river split off into the waterfalls, Angel, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe. Horseshoe falls was bigger but no less magnificent they all flowed down river and under Rainbow Bridge. It was easy to tell why the bridge was called that, because all of the mist that hung in the air from the falls was caught by the sunlight in such a way that rainbows sprang from everywhere. The ideal place for Iris-messaging.

We walked down the small paved paths dodging other tourists who like us were so preoccupied looking at the rushing water to see each other until we were inches away to see the other person. We were in a little park with paved cement sidewalks meandering through fresh trimmed green grass. There was a trash can about every five yards labeled "No littering." Only a three foot high stone wall stopped people from walking straight into the river. Which I thought was pretty stupid, like that's going to stop a curious three year old.

We eventually found a bench and sat down for at least on hour just staring which was weird since were all ADHD, just proving how mesmerizing it was.

"150,000 gallons of water per minutes," muttered Percy.

I raised an eyebrow at him, he wasn't known for his trivia.

"It's a Poseidon thing," he said.

Just then we heard shrieking coming from a group of tourist who were looking over the safety rails. Percy and I looked at each other then sprinted to the scene, leaving our bags behind. Nico was one step behind us.

There was a group of about ten people screaming and point at the water about twenty feet away from the fall's ledge.

The only thing I could make out from the screaming was, "There's a person in the water! They're going to go over the edge!"

Oh gods, I thought. When I looked I saw that they weren't lying, someone was in the water fighting the extremely strong current to keep from going over. I could tell it was a girl from her long blonde hair, but there was something weird about the skirt she was wearing.

She was a strong swimmer but the current was stronger she did the world's fastest butterfly stroke but it wasn't enough. After about her fourth repetition I saw what was wrong with her legs as they flicked upwards, they weren't legs at all.

It was a mermaid.

I was about to tell Percy but he was gone, I looked around desperately for him to ask what we should do. But only caught a last glimpse of him as he hurtled over the safety wall and dove into the rushing water. He disappeared for the next few minutes, then suddenly a portion of the water began to make a small whirlpool. I could tell he was underneath it. Then the girl disappeared under the water and there was no trace of either of them.

A few seconds later Percy walked out of the water like someone walks out of a subway station the mermaid was in his arms. The people gasped and pointed a few of them snapped pictures. Both the mermaid and Percy looked amazing for two people who nearly fell off one of the world largest waterfalls. She lay across his arms beaming up at him like a princess who just been rescued by Prince Charming. I half expected Percy to pull a white stallion out of the water and the two of them to ride off into the unrealistically early sunset.

Her scales shimmered in the mid-day sun Percy's jet black hair glinted. Both of them were completely dry, but apparently the spectators were to busy gaping at the fact that Percy'd just fought the current of Niagara Falls to notice. He looked down at her and said, "Hi, I'm Percy."

"Hello Percy, I'm Mea, thank you for saving me," then she reached up and fixed his bangs stroking his cheek affectionately at the same time.

"No problem, shall we get you back into the water?" he asked mesmerized by her uncanny beauty.

Percy looked at me and mouthed, "Distract them," and nodded at the crowd of what now were Percy's fans.

What did he want me to do. So I went with my first instinct.

I strutted over to Nico and screamed at him, "Why didn't you save her? It is your job as my boyfriend to be heroic and valiant!"

Just as I suspected all eyes turned to me. Nico looked like I'd just slapped him so I winked and he realized what I was doing, "I'm sorry that I can't be Superman!" he yelled back.

I glance to the side as I saw Percy disappear giving me a thumbs up as he dropped out of sight.

"And that's my friends is improve," I said bowing, "Thank you."

As soon as the crowd realized we were acting they muttered and looked around for Percy but he was long gone.

Nico grabbed Percy and his bags and I snatched up mine. We ran in the direction we saw Percy disappear.

He was pretty far away past Rainbow Bridge and out of the publics sight. We found him crouched behind a large shrub, Mea was in lying in the shallows of the river she grinned up at Percy who was staring giddily at her, this chick had a smile that could beat out any model. She was perfect, perfect tan skin, perfect waist length strait white blonde hair, and the perfect laugh. She looked about seventeen. She wore a Greek tunic that only reached her belly button and had silver bands on her upper-arms, they had a wave pattern etched in them.

"Lea, Nico, meet Mea a freshwater mermaid, on her way to lake Erie. Her home in lake Ontario was destroyed by a Cetus. She might be able to help us."

"Hello there," she said rest her chin on her hands in a flirty manner. She flicked her tail. It was cobalt blue but I was like that of a butterfly koi. She also had small fins going up the side of her arms from her wrists to her elbows.

"Excuse me a minute," she said with her melodic voice and splashed into the water and out of sight.

"She's pretty," said Nico.

"Really pretty," agreed Percy.

"Wow," I said shaking my head, "Boys."

After a few minutes she returned with something in her hand, "Here's the address for a place where they're giving away a nice little rowboat, it should be helpful on your quest."

She handed it to Percy her eyes gleaming mischievously as if she and him shared an inside joke.

"I'll meet you there," she said and with the swish of her tail she disappeared only jumping out of the water like a dolphin once more.

Percy stood up grinning like a maniac, "I think we found our scales of blue."

The address led to a little house of the edge of the river about a fifteen minute walk away.

Percy rang the doorbell and a man in a t-shirt and board shorts stepped out.

Percy chatted with him for a bit and then he led us down to a small dock where a speed-boat was docked and on the other side was our tiny little rowboat. It wasn't much but it would work.

Percy told the man we needed a little something just to get our friend for his birthday. I have no idea who would want an old rowboat for their birthday. We tossed our bags in and Percy helped me onto the old thing. Luckily there wasn't any leaks. We rowed out into the middle of the river and as soon as the nice man disappeared into his house Percy flicked his hand and we sped off like a brand new speed-boat. It was awesome, the wind whipped my ponytail around. I sat in the very front while Nico sat on the middle bench, Percy controlled the boat from the back.

I wondered where Mea had gone she said she'd meet us there. But she never showed up. I was just about to say something when I looked into the water next to Percy. I could see the sun reflecting of bright blue scales, either Mea was swimming beside us at fifty mph, or we had some mutantly fast fish following us. But then she jumped up did a barrel roll in midair and dove back in. Definitely a mermaid.

I watched as Mea would swim beside us flicking her tail four times, gliding a bit then flick it harder and shoot out of the water then dive back in. when you looked at her you had to smile she just radiated positivity because she was so bubbly.

We stopped for lunch at a riverside restaurant and Mea waited for us just off shore. I wondered what she ate, if anything at all. At about three o'clock we skidded into Lake Erie, except for if I hadn't been told I'd have thought we'd reached the Pacific Ocean. I'd been to Lake Tahoe which was pretty big, but the water of Lake Erie stretched on for what seem like forever.

We ate a dinner of saltines and granola bars which kind of sucked. But we didn't have the time to stop at a restaurant, they were to far away. We had to be speeding down the middle of the lake because I couldn't see any shoreline.

When the sun set, Mea, still swimming placed her hand on Percy's and he stopped the boat.

"We shall not travel at night. Your pursuer can only see you when you move. She is at her strongest hours of the day," she said soothingly.

A whipped my head around to Percy and hissed, "You told her about the quest!"

"No," he replied dumbly.

"The fish know many things they are quite the gossipers along with my cousins the sea mermaids."

"Fish told you?" I asked.

She nodded.

"You say your only cousins with the sea mermaids, is there a big difference?" asked Percy totally off subject.

"Oh, yes, my cousins tend to be more…" she trailed off thinking for a minute, "materialistic. But no matter, you must rest now and put your minds at ease."

It was strange she spoke in a manner that I found very similar to that of the proper people from old English movies, in a very poetic way. I began to consider that maybe she was older than she looked.

I looked up at the night sky the stars glistened like teardrops. I was only then that I remembered my dream.

"Percy, I had another dream last night while you guys were asleep," I said.

He leaned forward intently, "What'd she say?"

"Not much, just that she was sending minions after us and not even the gods could save us."

Mea whimpered her face half submerged in the water.

"But that wasn't what bugged me," I continued, "Isn't Mount Tam in San Francisco?"

"Yeah."

"Well I didn't see a city."

Percy thought for a second furrowing his brow, "I guess that's kind of normal when I dreamt of it I didn't see the city either."

"There was an evergreen forest in the distance," I said.

"What?" he asked shocked.

The it hit me, I knew where it was. I knew why I recognized the mountains. They were only about two hours from where I used to live.

"The Sierras."


	9. Chapter 9 Things Get Cold in Cleveland

9-Things Get Cold in Cleveland

Percy stared and me and blinked with dumb anticipation, "The what?"

"The Sierras, it's a mountain range near where I used to live."

"I-I think I might've flown over those on giant bronze angels once," said Percy.

"Okay….." I said cautiously waiting for him to say he was joking, and then I made the mental connection. Demigod.

"Do you think Nyx is rising on one of the peaks?" prompted Nico.

"Yeah, the highest one, but I forgot what it's called," I racked my brain for any hint at the name I used to know so well. My brain refused to even give me a hint.

"We'll get a map once we reach Cleveland, which we'll there tomorrow afternoon," said Percy.

"Now sleep," said Mea, her voice soothing and calm, she began to sing a lullaby in a voice that was like honey sweet and soft, she was singing something in was I recognized as Celtic, then Greek, Latin, French, Italian, the girl was much more than bilingual. Oh, and if you're wondering how I knew how to recognize those languages, I listen to a lot of foreign music, like Enya. Within a few minutes I passed out right on top of Percy but when your on a quest it's not that personal.

When I woke up Percy was sprawled out over half the boat Nico covered the rest, Percy's foot was dangling in the water; his green converse soaked by the mini waves lapped up against it. I, however was curled up next to Percy, my arm flung over his chest and my head lying just below his collar bone. I really didn't feel like moving he was warm and the wind that blew off the lake chilled me to the core, especially with no blankets, and only a hoodie and a tank-top with jeans and converse to keep me warm. This is what it felt like to have a brother, I thought. It was nice, but I knew it wouldn't last.

It was that I noticed something different, the sky, I thought it was still night, but no, It was cloudy. Seriously cloudy, the clouds churned a dark purplish-blue. Thunder rumbled softly and then it roared angrily and the whip-like crack of lightning lashed out of the sky. The bolt skittered through the sky in one luminescent streak. Percy jumped into full upright sitting position flinging me to the prow of the boat. He looked around, alert and attentive.

"Just thunder," I said.

He relaxed a bit but he still looked conflicted, "Strange it's been nice our entire trip I wasn't expecting a cloudy day, especially not," he paused when thunder rumbled again and large heavy droplets of water began to slap down on us, "Rain."

Nico groaned and sat up rubbing his eyes, "Rain?" he asked. It was like in the movies one second, clear sky, next second pouring.

"Yeah," I replied rubbing my arms trying to get some more warmth but I was already so wet that my attempts were futile.

Percy noticed and rummaged through his bag, he pulled out a huge grey waterproof windbreaker, "We'll get you something new in Cleveland."

I nodded in thanks pulling on the thin polyester jacket, that was only six sizes too giant on me.

Mea was gone but Percy reassured me that she'd show up to say good bye. He sounded more like he was reassuring himself. We skidded across Lake Erie, the wind and rain lashing at us to a point where my face felt sore.

After about an hour I began to see tall skyscrapers over the horizon. Cleveland was big. I kept on expecting small towns but I guess if you know a city's name it's probably big. As I watched the city come closer I noticed something strange, all of the lightning that flashed across the sky converged at one point, the highest skyscraper. I knew lightning was attracted to high metal objects but this was different, supernatural.

"That's not right," Percy confirmed.

"What do you think is going on?" I asked.

In response I saw it, like a remake of King-Kong something began to climb that tower, a giant teenage buy, in a loincloth, gross.

Then I noticed, there was two, two teenage boys with curly sand blonde hair and Grecian loincloths, at least 150 feet tall trying to climb the skyscraper. They were huge burly boys mid-twenties at most, shaggy hair covered their bodies the rain reflected off of the ginormous muscles like in those disgusting body building commercials. We were a bout three miles away, but I could already smell them, it was body odor to the max. These guys needed some serious AXE. They tried and tried to get a firm grip on the huge building in order to climb it like a pole, it was not working.

It was also by far the strangest thing I'd ever seen.

"Alodae," said a voice behind me, but when I turned around no one was there, but that was the least of my worries.

"What are they doing?" asked Nico.

"Whatever they're doing it doesn't look good," said Percy, flicking his hand making the boat speed on at what fleet like at least 100 mph.

We passed by a building that looked vaguely familiar and we shot up the shoreline, the building was boxy and white with lots of glass, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," muttered Percy longingly, "I'll bet they have a whole section on ACDC, shame."

As we got closer I began to see more in detail, the giant twins would attempt to climb up the side of the building but every time they got a solid grip lightning would strike down and shock them.

A tiny whirlwind circled around one of them, he swatted at it like a fly.

"I am Otus, you cannot hurt me little demigod!" he roared, but he was talking to the whirlwind not us, another demi-god was fighting them, a particularly powerful one.

"Jason," said Percy.

"The son of Zeus?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I think his sisters with him."

We ditched the boat at a small marshy area with a small boardwalk over the reeds, a direct path into the city. When we were about a hundred feet in from the shore jogging, Percy stopped and looked back hesitant and sad. He never got the chance to say goodbye to Mea.

He shook his head and jogged up to me, "I'll see her again, it's just how things work for demi-gods whether we want it or not," he reasoned but I could tell he already missed her, they bonded on a godly level and it was easy to see.

We jogged for about fifteen minutes, my pack weighing me down, the water that it was soaked with added a few extra pounds. We finally reached town square to see that they're was absolutely nobody outside, and don't think it was just because of the weather. Then I saw what was making the lightning, A teenage girl dressed in complete silver stood before the giants raising her spear and yelling something I couldn't hear over the thunder. When she raised her spear lightning streaked down from the sky striking the tip of her spear, she promptly stabbed one of the giants in the foot. It didn't react at all.

The giants looked exactly the same which was extremely confusing for me, but then I noticed they both wore large bangles on their wrists. One wore gold, the other wore silver.

"Thalia!" yelled Percy.

The girl jumped and spun around, she had sharp features, pale skin, electric blue eyes, literally, and a splatter of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She looked about sixteen but there was something in her eyes that told me she was older and wiser.

We dropped out bags in the middle of the road.

"Percy? Nico?" she asked cocking her head to the side.

Thalia glanced up at the silver bangled giant, he was too busy trying to climb to care about her, all she was to him was a small static shock.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, "and who's that?" she said nodding to me.

"Questing," said Percy, "Thalia meet Lea, Primum cruor of Morpheus. Lea meet Thalia daughter of Zeus former pine tree current huntress of Artemis."

"Primum cruor?" asked Thalia, "I think I've heard of you, you took down a Kraken right?"

"That's me." I agreed, "Any plans for the…" I paused, "Future?" I said gesturing to the huge giant now scaling the building.

"Jason and I can't seem to take them down, they 're too big, we can only stall them. Any ideas?" she asked putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah maybe," I said," Call Jason down."

"Yeah?" asked a voice behind me.

I jumped, behind me stood a teenage boy probably sixteen, maybe seventeen. He had the same eyes as Thalia but light blonde hair and a small scar above his lip. He looked like an actor I liked, Alex Pettyfer, so in other words, he was really freaking good looking. I wondered if that was routine for every child of the big three. Godly good looks.

"Okay I guess were all here," and I quickly did a summarization in my head before I said it aloud, "Nico, summon all the dead you can, they'll serve as a distraction, Percy get me up to those guys faces, we'll take out their eyes. I don't mean that literally," I said replying to Percy's appalled facial expression, "Jason, Thalia go up to the lightning rod there should be some same wires or cords up there, hook them to the lightning rod and then to the giants bangles and I think you know where I'm going."

Jason nodded, "I don't know who you are, but your smart."

Thalia looked uncomfortable, "I think I'll just stay down here with Nico a better distraction, ya know." She shifter uneasily. There was something she was avoiding.

"Jason, do you think you'll manage?" I asked.

"Totally," and with a single jump he rocketed up and out of sight.

Percy looked at me, "You're my new Annabeth," then he paused, "That DID NOT come out right. I mean your just like her in the way you plan. As if there is no other way to do it."

"Can you think of another way?" I asked.

He grinned, "Of course not, because that's not my job."

He grabbed me around the waist and the rain began to swirl around us then we blasted off. It was like the Tower of Terror times three. So fast I felt like my face was being stretched apart.

In no time we were level with the gold bangled giant's face. He looked stupidly at us, "More demi-gods? I smell fish. I do not like fish!"

"Nice to meet you too!" yelled Percy, "Ready?" he asked me.

"Not at all, let's go!"

Percy flung me straight into the giants face, which was so wrinkled with stupid anger It was easy to grip onto, but not to mention really gross and weird to me. Hanging onto a giant teenage boys face for dear life as he tries to scale a large building, yeah that's how I plan on spending my weekend.

I climbed up his pale skin as he tried to swat at me like I was a spider.

"Ephaltes will not tolerate you!" the giant yelled.

When I finally reached his eye, he was shaking his head around like he was listening to heavy metal. Quite a wild ride for me. Just as I was about to be flung a thousand feet to my death, I snatched one of his huge eye lashes, which was the size of a thin rope, but no where near the same consistency.

I was only about as tall as his pupil was big. I gripped dramatically to that eyelash lifeline with one hand and pressed my necklace with the other. Now the only worry, well not the only one, besides falling, was dropping my sword. Mine didn't magically reappear like Percy's and even if it did I wasn't willing to experiment now. I gripped tightly onto the handle and silently wished that Giant pupils weren't filled with liquid and with one long swish of my sword I felt it cut through the gooey flesh of the cornea. My sixth grade cow eyeball dissection seemed like a walk in the park now. A deafening roar cut through the air and I knew I had hit my mark but at the same time Ephaltes did the ultimate Willow Smith and he jerked his head sharply to the left. My grip on his eyelash wasn't strong enough and weightlessness over took my body. I was in mid-air then streaking towards the asphalt. Who would save me now?

Apparently Jason would. Because when I was only four-hundred feet from a gross splattery death, I was side tackled by I muscle toned body.

I choked on the air around me as I suddenly gained back my 104 pounds of weight back.

"So what's your name?" asked Jason.

"Ummm, Lea, nice catch by the way," I replied shyly.

"Thanks, I've had a lot of practice, let's get you on some solid ground, get ready for some fireworks."

He set me on the ground next to Nico, who was bent over panting. Summoning the dead took the life out of him. I watched as Percy took out the other giant, Otus' eye. Both giants thrashed around violently hands covering their eyes. Both of them yelling in agony.

Jason turned to Thalia, "Do you think you can do this?"

"Yeah," she said her face a pale white from nerves, "Just don't drop me."

Jason held onto her waist firmly and they both exploded off of the ground and flew into the air.

"Thalia is afraid of heights," Nico explained to me.

"Oh, that kind of sucks," I said. It was ironic, a child of the sky lord afraid of heights. I felt bad for her.

Percy landed next to me, "Well, that was interesting."

We watched in silence as Jason connected what looked like really long jumper cords to the big metal bangle that each giant was wearing, then disappeared.

I prepared myself for the worst.

The sky exploded with a sound like every building was crumbling around us, but it was only the thunder and with thunder there is always… the huge bolt of lightning struck down as quick as well, lightning and struck the lightning rod.

The smell of electricity hung in the air for a few seconds then, I watched as the long silver-blue line of energy streaked down the cord hit the bangles, spread out like a web, the giants cried out one last time, and exploded into dust. It have been very, shocking, for them. Bad pun, I know, get over it.

Percy looked at me, "Nice plan."

"Thanks," I said, then started couching, it reeked of fried hair, and the only reason I knew that smell was because I walked by the Aphrodite cabin every morning while they straighten their hair.

Jason and Thalia landed down next to Percy.

"Nice job," I said to them.

"Thanks," said Jason, who looked so tired that he'd pass out any minute.

"Those were some weird looking giants," I said.

"Not the weirdest I've ever seen," said Jason.

"Giants can get pretty far out, with snake dandruff, scales, and other things," summed Percy.

"Like dreadlocks with weapons weaved into them," added Jason.

"So what were they after anyway?" asked Nico.

"You see those keys up there," said Thalia pointing to the giant red keys on the side of the building near the very top, "The keys on Key Tower, are actual keys to underworld, they've been kept secret a while now. But now that the word is out many monsters have been trying to get to them and Jason and I have been assigned to protect them for a while until the monsters get the idea that there off limits."

"Why would monsters want to go to the underworld?" I asked.

"So they can let loose some of the monsters and souls that are trapped there," explained Thalia, "Any entrance to the underworld is a big problem for the gods."

I looked at Nico who was a whole lot paler than usual, his eyes were wide.

I changed the subject a bit, "So why don't monsters of a smaller size just go in the normal way, like, through the building," I pictured a bunch of Kobaloi riding up the elevator next to a woman in a business suit screaming her head off. Maybe it wasn't such a grand idea.

"The building's enchanted, no monsters can go inside if they intend to take the keys," said Thalia.

"Why couldn't you just enchant the keys to make it so that monster couldn't touch them or something," I asked.

"That's a really good question, but you'd have to ask the gods," said Percy, "Sometimes they don't think as straight forward as we do."

"So where are you guys headed," asked Jason.

"Columbus," I replied.

"Really, that's cool I would ask you more about your quest but you guys better get going, there is a train leaving for Columbus at noon," He said.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Were headed to Columbus tomorrow and then we come back here after three days," he replied.

"Why?"

"Because Zeus said something important was happening there," said Thalia.

"Did he tell you what?"

"No, but I think a titan might be rising there," said Thalia, "A big one."


	10. Chapter 10 I get a Visit From Love

10-I Get a Visit from Love Himself

The first bit of the train ride was long and boring. I got to know a lot more about Jason; Turns out he was dating a daughter of Aphrodite named Piper, but things were complicated, he tensed up and I backed off. Thalia on the other hand was a Huntress of Artemis and would never date. She didn't talk much especially with the whole huntress thing being one of Nico's sore spots and everyone seemed to know that. I guess when you're a demi-god there isn't much you can keep secret.

After about an hour, the sleep that'd I'd lost over the past few days, finally caught up to me. My body ached with the hunger for rest, but I tried to stay awake. I couldn't stand the chance of another visit from Nyx. But the second after I sat down from pacing the train, sleep snatched me, and I passed out, right on top of Nico.

My dream was really weird and not the kind of weird where your flying through clouds made of whipped butter on a piece of French toast, but weird as in you know your dreaming but nothing is happening. I was walking through blackness, it was as if I was walking through a very foggy field, except the fog was a dense black. A voice echoed around me, at first I couldn't tell what it was saying.

_Oh great_ I thought to myself _Another visit from Nyx. _

"No child, I am glad to say that the accursed Titaness of night will not be pestering you now or for quite a while after I teach you your lineage."

The voice was calming, deep and smooth like those Yoga instructors on Do-It-Yourself videos. I could tell now that it was male and that only left one option for who it could be.

"Father?" I asked crossing my arms as I halted and stood in place, "What do you want from me?"

The guy just had to come into my life now, of all times.

The voice chuckled lightly, a felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, "I'm sorry my dear child. A god's timing is never good, no matter how hard we try."

I spun around to see a tall man, he was exactly like I expected. His face was ageless. He had wrinkles but you couldn't tell if they were from old age or from laughing. Everything about him made you feel calm, like drinking hot chocolate. He even smelled like cocoa. His hair was relatively short and even in this place with little to no breeze, his gray hair looked wind blown, like he'd stood in front of a power-fan for a half-an-hour. The greatest thing about him was his eyes, they reminded me of kaleidoscope,s all of the colors of the rainbow dancing across a deep shimmering blue-violet background. He wore a black tuxedo with a shimmery lead colored tie.

"You're awful spiffy," I spat. Although he was warm and inviting I resented him for neglecting me, his only daughter.

"I'm sorry Lea, I truly am. Zeus doesn't permit much contact between gods and their children, only if it is essential and I'm afraid that I have not come here to spend time with you. No matter how much I want to."

"So what do you want?"

"Why don't we discuss it in a more, calm and distinguished ambience," he said and he swiped his hand like the air around us was a giant ouch screen and the mist swirled and then faded revealing a calm street. Nobody else was there. Just a cobblestone road with little shops on the side. A flower shop, a bistro, art store, music store, bakery, and a little café lined the roadside. Draping flowers hunger from banisters and the street lamps glittered in the warm sunlight that shone through the clear blue sky.

It was the perfect place.

But everything shimmered when you moved, like a mirage. I felt like it would disappear any second now and I'd fall into the foggy abyss.

He led me over to a small two chaired table just outside of the café and pulled out the seat for me like a gentleman. I walked over and sat down in the other chair. He chuckled, "Just like your mother."

"Why don't we get to the point?"

"Zeus will only allow me to say so much, he hasn't been very trusting since…" Morpheus paused, looking pained as his word trailed off, "but I'm going to help you as much as I can."

"Why wouldn't Zeus trust you?" I pryed.

"After I tried to help the Titans win the war," He stated flatly.

"You did what? Why didn't Nico tell me?" I gasped.

"Sometimes your friends feel that it is best to shield you from painful truths, no matter how subtle or substantial."

"This is what I call extremely substantial, my dad, a traitor."

That must of really hit him hard. A silver tear rolled down his cheek and I started to pity him. I was being a bit harsh.

"Lea, I didn't want to betray my kin, but there were some rules I couldn't stand, some laws that I resented Zeus for establishing," the sadness in his voice pained me, "I hoped that if the Titans won this war, some rules would be changed, maybe gods would be able to see their children grow. Lea, I fought that war so that I could spend more time with you."

I gulped. I felt like a mouse stuck in a rat-trap, hurt and without an escape.

"Let's get to the point of this conversation," tears were welling in my eyes. But I wouldn't show any signs of weakness. Not in front of him.

"I see, your forgiveness is not easily earned," he sighed, "There is only one way you can defeat Nyx, a sword doused with a bottle of the Golden River."

"What is that?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you," he said, "Although I can give you this."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out what at first looked like a necklace. A long gold chain that held on the end of it a shimmery glass bottle with a golden sun emblazed on it. Morpheus dropped it into my open palm.

"You must fill this bottle with the Golden River, but don't get greedy like many before you have. It may be your downfall if you do."

"Such a cheery note to end on," I said standing up, "Is that all?"

"Yes I'm afraid our time together has come to an end for now. I see that you realized what you can do."

I had realized, this entire time I could have walked out on him, he was kind enough to put an exit to the dream right under my nose. I looked in the book store windows, Percy sat quietly on the train's seat, chatting calmly with Thalia and Jason, while Nico looked adoringly at me. He brushed back the bangs that were falling in my face. As he did a warm breeze swept down the street blowing my bangs into place. The bookstore was a portal back into reality and out of the dream world.

I walked across the street and held onto the door handle.

I looked back at my dad, he looked nervous standing rigid with his hands in his pockets.

"Goodbye Morpheus," I said.

"Goodbye Lea, and remember I l-" I didn't let him finish I stepped through the door before he could say what I didn't want to hear.

I lurched awake swinging into full upright position all my muscles tense.

"Lea, I was just about to wake you up. Were here." Said Nico, blushing at the fact that we were so closely pressed next to each other.

"So Columbus," I said, "Where are we headed to next?"

"An attendant gave me a schedule and apparently the farthest train west heads to Colorado. But like everything else on this stupid quest, there is an hour till it leaves so we might as well, like always, pass time here in town," groaned Percy, the sleep loss visible through his agitation.

"And find out about that Titan," said Thalia.

"I think it's a false call," I said, "Or else my dad would have mentioned it."

"When did you speak with Henry?" asked Nico looking confused and bewildered.

"My real dad," I said the displeasure in my voice obvious.

"Oh," said Nico lowering his voice, "I see."

"We'll talk about it later, but first let's go sight-seeing."

We got off the train and look out at the bright open Columbus air. I was so sick of cities by this time, I didn't even find the beautiful sparkling skyscrapers anything but nauseating. We strolled down the long orderly streets looking for a good cheap restaurant to pass time at. We eventually spotted a nice little Italian Bistro with wines carling over the face of the building and a joyful clamor evading from it's interior.

"Perfect," said Percy, "I'm craving garlic bread."

"If you want to go ahead, but theirs is no way your sitting next to me on the train if you do," I said. He looked at me confused by my little joke, "your garlic breath isn't getting anywhere near me."

"Oh, ha ha, very funny," he mocked and loped out ahead of us.

Thalia smiled at me, "You two could be brother and sister if you didn't look so different."

"Well technically we are related…distantly."

She smiled and kept walking.

"Excuse me," said a voice behind me, before I could turn I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see the most gorgeous boy ever.

I did a half-squeak half-sigh. Oh gods this boy was beautiful.

He looked about fifteen, maybe younger, maybe older. But no younger than fourteen and no older than sixteen. He had olive skin that wasn't too tan or too pale. Thick, luscious black hair that swept to the left. A kind smile with perfect teeth, and the cute pointy little canine teeth that lined up perfectly with his lips. And a dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose. Muscular arms that move gracefully and gently, you knew he could crush you if he wanted to, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. Hades, he'd probably relocated that fly to a better home. His fashion sense was perfect a pale blue t-shirt with beige cargo pants and a simple FIGHT CANCER wristband. But there was one thing that really completed him; his voice. It was calm and gentle, not too high and not weirdly low. His eyes were amazing too; a light blue-green that sparkled with a mixture of humor, kindness and mischievousness. But there was something not right about them they pupil's weren't the rich black they were supposed to be, they looked glazed, almost filmed over. A look I recognized from my old dog Makkie's eyes and there's was one thing that confirmed my sad suspicions. The boy held a cane. He was blind.

"I'm sorry to bother you but I'm trying to find my way to Beaumont Street and well, I can't read the signs. Would you mind helping me find it?" He spoke in a shy bashful way. I felt the strange need to hug him and never let go.

"Sure," I said putting on my kindest voice, "I'd love to help."

I looked over at Nico who looked a mix between furiously jealous, extremely shocked and somewhat suspicious.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," I said.

"Okay," replied Nico hesitantly.

The boy held out his hand and smiled bashfully, "It would help. It makes it easier for me to predict your movement and direction."

I snatched up his hand and held on firmly. It wasn't gross like most guy hands, soft and not the least bit sticky.

"So, what's your name? Because I have a feeling this might be a bit of a walk, according that map," I said nodding at the large map that was pasted to the side of a bus stop. Beaumont street at least four blocks away from the large YOU ARE HERE dot.

"Eros, I know kinda weird," he said with a faint laugh at the end, mocking his own name.

Something about that name struck a cord with me but I pushed it aside.

"I like it, very original."

A group of girl shuffled past us they giggled winked and waved at Eros. He didn't notice but I gave them the _Back off he's mine _glare and they kept moving, well except for one of them, she passed out.

I'm still not great with my powers.

"So Lea, What brings you to Columbus?" Eros asked.

I stopped abruptly and glared at him.

"Okay, cut the act. Who are you and what do you want?" I demanded.

"W-what? Did I do something wrong?" he asked looking genuinely shocked.

"I never told you my name, none of my friends ever said my name and yet you still know what it is? I'm not wearing a name tag and even if I was-" I stopped there. He clearly got the point.

"Like your dad said earlier. Gods are always here on business and once again like your father I'm here to warn you and give some tips."

This guy was really hard to get mad at, he was just so pretty.

"First of all," I said, debating with myself whether to let go of his hand, "Are you really blind or can I let go now."

"Have you ever heard the expression 'Love is Blind'?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"It's not just an expression."

"Oh, okay. So you're the god of love. That makes sense."

"Haha, yeah son of Aphrodite the Amazing herself. Sorry if I led you on before, it's kind of ya know, my nature."

"Aren't you married?" I asked. Hey, it was his fault for coming to me in the first place. I will ask personal questions.

He sighed, sadness showing through his bright smile which sunk into a troubled frown.

"You sure do know your mythology."

"I spent the last four months stuck in my cabin reading endless books of it," I muttered to myself.

"You see the Greeks, bless their souls, wanted a more fairytale ending to my story, but I'm afraid Psyche never woke up from that dreadful curse. She will for ever remain my sleeping beauty, but even my magical kiss will not wake her."

"Oh that's sad," I said stating the obvious.

He grimaced, "Why don't we get to the point? Your friend, the daughter of Zeus, Thalia, I think it is, was right about a titan rising here in Columbus. Unfortunately, you are more of a burden to her here than a help."

"Okay, and why is that?" I prompted.

"The titan of dawn is more friend than foe to you. She is the determining factor of whether Nyx rises or not. Do not fight her quite yet for if she is destroyed before Nyx, the Titaness of Night will be at her most powerful. She and Eos aren't the closest of friends, in fact they despise each other. Luckily for you Eos may be on your side and doesn't want the world for herself she may even be your ally. Alas, you cannot dwell here. Let the children of Zeus stay here and keep here at bay with their company. You must continue on your quest let nothing stop you from surging forward."

"You do realize right now you're keeping me from eating and getting on my way." I said.

Eros laughed, "Clever girl, it is not a wonder why my mother has taken quite the interest in you."

"Oh great."

"I'm sorry Lea, she seems to have a taste for the heroes that want her 'blessings' the least. I'll try my best to subdue her attempts to meddle."

"You'd do that?" I asked.

"I'll try. I like you Lea. You and Psyche have a lot in common. Except the fact that you are far more intelligent."

"And I'm awake."

"Maybe," he said and then winked.

My heart fluttered, and I smacked it for it's stupidity. Which must have looked strange cause Eros raised a brow at me.

"Were here," I said when I spotted the Beaumont Street. sign.

"Thank you, fair one," he let go of my hand and turned away from me looking up at the sky. I noticed a faint pattern on the back of his shirt, it had angel wings stenciled in white onto it. Just before I could say anything more, the stencil began to move, expand, and then fold out. The wings grew and solidified on his back. Full white wings stretched from his shoulder blades and his shirt faded into nothing, which I deeply enjoyed and later cursed myself for. He turned to me and smiled.

"Cool trick, eh?" flashed a grin and with one quick flick of his wings launched into he sky before he turned into a silhouette he turned to me and said "Good luck," and was gone.

I briskly walked back to the Italian restaurant. Nico was waiting out front for me.

"Why aren't you eating with the others?" I asked.

"I wanted to wait for you. Ya know just in case that guy turned out to me a monster," he shrugged looking bashfully at his sneakers; black converse.

"Nope just Eros," said leading him into the restaurant. It was a pleasant place with dim lighting and hardwood floors, and a very authentic Italy vibe.

"Eros?" sputtered Nico.

"Yeah, he warned us that we better keep moving and let Eos rise here."

"Eos, the titan of dawn?"

"Yeah, I'll fill you in on the train ride."

We slid into the booth next to Percy who was downing an entire loaf of bread like a hungry barbarian. The waiters were even giving him weird looks.

I took a minute to get a better look at Nico. He looked about fourteen, maybe younger, maybe older. But no younger than thirteen and no older than fifteen. He had olive skin that wasn't too tan or too pale. Thick, luscious black hair that swept to the left. A dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose. Muscular arms that move gracefully and gently. He looked a whole lot like Eros. Which scared me. The thought that maybe Eros adapted how he looked to what you thought was most attractive creeped into my head. I sure hoped not. Eros and Nico could be brothers and I prayed to the gods (well, except for Aphrodite) that I was just dreaming it.

But there was thing I knew for sure, since I had met Eros there was something different about Nico; either he had changed or something about the was I saw him had.

Eros told me Aphrodite would meddle and I had a feeling this was her first act of 'kindness'.

Thalia waved her hand in front of my face.

"Sorry zoning," I apologized as I came out of my trance.

"So you met Eros? What he hot?" she asked nudging me, "Sorry I had to ask. But did you learn anything."

"Yeah and yeah, you guys have to make friends with the Titaness of Dawn and we have to get going, now."


	11. Chapter 11 I Put Pure Rage to Sleep

11- I Put Pure Rage to Sleep

I explained what Eros had said to me as quickly as if could and during the entire time Percy didn't stop to breath while eating his food. I stuck with a simple Italian pizza that I shared with Nico.

"So, we have to make friends with a Titan?" asked Thalia in disbelief.

"That what Eros said," I shrugged it couldn't be that hard, it not like titans weren't human-ish.

"Where do you think she might be?" asked Jason.

"Probably on the east side of town near a famous building," reasoned Nico.

"Why do you think that?" asked Percy, which sounded more like "Mazizah fink fat," through the spaghetti in his mouth. Kid needs to learn some manners. My seventh grade teacher would have stabbed him to death if he saw him, but of course she'd keep her pinkies up the entire time. She was an edickit freak. In fact her name was Mrs. Polite, although she wasn't very nice.

"Sun rises in the east and gods are attracted to famous places or at least it seems to be the case," I explained for Nico.

"We'll start there," said Thalia standing up and brushing the crumbs from Percy off her black skinny jeans.

Jason stood up next to her throwing his bag over his shoulder, "Well we both better get going, the train leaves in a half-an-hour and you guys don't want to miss it."

"Thanks for the help back in Cleveland," said Thalia.

"No problem," I said as I ripped of the last bit of our paper thin pizza and stuffed it into my mouth, smacking Percy's hand away from the breadsticks. He scowled at me.

"It was really nice meeting you Lea," said Thalia bowing her head to me, "Bye guys."

"I hope to see you again soon," said Jason and I watched as they exited through the large wooden doors and out into the sunlight.

"Are you finished yet?" I asked Percy.

"Just about," he said as he stuffed one last breadstick into his mouth and signed the check.

We strolled down the street, "I'm still hungry," said Percy.

"If you ate anymore you'd deplete the restaurant of all it's breadsticks," I said.

"What? They were really good," he insisted.

When we reached the train station the sky had clouded over and the eeriness of the city began to set in.

"Let's get out of here," I said.

The train didn't have compartments only little booths but they were fairly secluded which was nice. The seats were really uncomfortable like somebody had used cardboard instead of foam to fill them. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true.

I felt like I needed to get out of there. It was a strange impulsive feeling, I knew danger was coming but there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was a sixth sense, one that I'm so glad I do and wish I didn't have.

The first half of the ride was slow and quite. I watched in silence as the simple landscape of Indiana and Illinois rolled past. Everything quite and peaceful, no twinge of excitement, but there was that underlying feeling of dread rising in my stomach. It had been a full day since any run-ins with monsters. I tried to shove the feeling aside.

Percy paced the train and I only saw him every few minutes.

Nico sat across from me staring at me, but every time I looked back at him he'd glance away.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Nothing. I was just wondering if you felt it too," he said.

I did not like where this is going. That was a good cliché love story line, one that I wanted steer clear of.

"Something feels wrong," he continued.

I sighed in relief, thank the gods he wasn't talking romantically, that was my Achilles' heel. Love. Even the thought of it makes me feel weak and sick to my stomach.

"I know, I can feel an attack coming," I agreed.

"That's normal, but something about this feeling isn't. It feels different."

Then I felt as if someone had hooked my up to an electric charger, the realization shot through my being.

"It's not a monster," I gasped.

"Ooooh, good job. If only you figured that out earlier," said a nasal drawling voice behind me.

A girl about my age stood in the aisle behind me. She had pale skin, with freckles across the bridge of her nose. A smirk played across her face, slightly crooked to the right. Her hair was in two long pigtails and was such a drab black she looked like she was filmed in black and white. Her eyes were gray, she had painted black finger nails, she wore all black too. She could be named "Mrs. Monochromatic of 2012."

And her brother looked exactly the same.

"Hey there, questers," she said in the same mocking tone, "My name is Alyssa and I'm here to make sure your trip to Hades will be long and painful."

She snapped her fingers and swished her hand to the left, the other people in the train car who were just staring at us began to bicker angrily with one another.

"And I am Lyssan, and I'm here to send him," he glared pointedly at Nico, "back to his father's kingdom the fastest way possible, death."

"Alyssa and Lyssan, that a bit redundant. Don't you think?" I said, my mind wasn't functioning properly and took the information in a weird way.

The girl's cheeks flushed with rage, "Our mother would not take kindly to that offense."

"Who's your mom?" I asked stupidly.

"Lyssa the goddess of pure rage and rabies," she replied.

"I should have guessed. You do look like very angry people."

She lunged at me, drawing out two skinning knives. I grabbed my necklace and quickly pressed the button. It unfolded into my sword in three quick; _Shhlink, shlink, shhilnk. _'s.

The girl growled in anger and dived towards me, I ducked and she flew past.

Before I could get out of the way, the boy shoved me into my seat and drew a sword out on Nico. Nico's sword met him in return. They went into feirce combat; Lyssan had a lot more energy than Nico and a lot more strength. But Nico was calm and collected and he easily deflected Lyssan's blows.

While I was busy watching them, I didn't see Alyssa get back up to her feet. She charged at me. Our blades crossed, she pressed on me and I backed up, down the aisle.

Not only did this girl dress in all black like a ninja assassin, she moved like one too. Quick and stealthy like a snake, she slinked around trying to intimidate me with her glare.

All of the sudden she went into hyper-active speed, forcing me to think quickly as I blocked and deflected all of her swings. I had two focus on two blades at once, which was nearly impossible. While I blocked one she sliced her across the cheek with the other, as I deflected one, she cut into my shoulder.

Just after she cut into my upper arm, she made a false move. She lunged forward and I leaned back. She nearly cut off my ear, but missed by a few fractions of a centimeter. But she did hit a mark as she sliced though my ponytail. Her blade cutting clean through the elastic of my hair-band. My only hair-band. My hair fell in a long brunette and pink waterfall down my back. Falling in it's usual messy flowing way.

This mad me mad, really mad.

I kicked her in the chest.

She hit the window.

She thudded loudly against the glass.

She was no child of a sky deity but that girl sure did fly, when my foot made contact with her chest.

"Owww!" she wailed, "You-"

She was cut off by the train's whistle.

She sprinted at me like a raging buffalo. But I had weakened her.

I side-stepped and her blade cut through my right fore-arm. Right across the eye on my tattoo. The entire tattoo glowed furiously pink and the large group of mortal passengers instantly collapsed into a deep sleep. Most of them snored.

Alyssa looked as if I just injected her with Tylenol; extremely drowsy.

I grabbed her by the shoulders, and did something I've always wanted to do.

With one sharp "Hiiieya" I slammed my forehead straight into hers. She collapsed on the spot.

I'd like to say that I was victorious in my actions, but that chick had a forehead like steel.

It hurt a lot.

Then I remembered when Henry and I were watching a Jackie Chan movie about a year ago, "You see, you hit them right in between their eyes," he had said. Oh well, to late.

Nico and Lyssan were still in intense combat, but it was slow and tired as if they were stuck in a time warp. Unfortunately my sleep spell didn't affect demi-gods as much as it did mortals.

"Hey Lyssan!" I yelled.

He made the mistake of looking.

"Take a nap."

I raised my hand and centered it with his face, my finger tips glowed and he crumpled into a little heap on the floor of the train car.

"Thanks," Gulped Nico.

"No problem," I shrugged.

I kneeled next to Alyssa and untwisted one of her black hair-bands out of her hair.

She didn't need two, one worked fine for me, plus she owed me in the first place.

I tied my hair back up and sighed, "Much better."

Nico grinned quirkily and then blushed getting all shy, "I think you look pretty either way."

I changed the subject.

"We better isolate these guys before they wake up," I said.

"Yeah, but first there's something I want you to try."

He walked up to me and kneeled next to me and Alyssa.

"Okay, just trust me here," he said.

"I already do."

He blushed even more, for such a pale kid, he sure did gain a lot of pigment in his cheeks.

"Put your forefingers to her temples and try to remember fifteen minutes ago."

I followed his instructions and the second I tried to think back a sharp pain shot thought my head and I snapped my eyes shut.

I saw Lyssan, he was wide awake and he was saying something to me, after a few seconds I could make out what he was saying.

"Are you sure mom wants us to do this?" I don't want to upset her, "You now how she gets when she's angry."

He rubbed at his neck where I saw the white lines of fresh scars.

"Nyx wanted these demi-gods taken down before they reach Shasta. They're moving along to quickly. They might actually make it. It's our job to stop them, no matter how," I said.

The words kind of just spouted out of my mouth, it wasn't at all what I was thinking but it was what I said. If I had said what I was thinking it would have come out more like, "Dude, how are you still awake?"

"That's them right?" asked Lyssan nodding behind me. I turned my head to see Nico and, I feel weird saying this, myself sitting at our booth.

"Yeah," I agreed, "Let's go."

I strided up to the booth.

I heard myself say, "It's not a monster."

"Ooooh, good job. If only you figured that out earlier," I said and then suddenly everything went black and I opened my eyes.

"Whoa," I said.

"I worked didn't it?" prompted Nico looking excited.

"Yeah, those twins were hired as assassins by Nyx," I said.

"Wow, she must be really desperate to dispose of us, that means were a threat."

Lucky us," I groaned sarcastically.

"Your tattoo was glowing," he said.

"Yeah, it does that when I use my powers," I reasoned.

"I just get all weak and sweaty."

"Lovely," I mused.

At that moment Percy walked back into the train car from the deck.

His jaw dropped open as he saw all the people in the car were asleep.

"Geez," he said, "Somebody got a little angry."

I looked at Nico and laughed.

He joined with me, and then I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Nyx didn't bug my at all while I slept, she knew that I was too much of a threat now that I realized how strong I was and that I was going to take her down.

Just like I could feel an attack coming earlier, I knew that the titan of night was afraid of me.


	12. Chapter 12 Follow the Yellow Brick Road

12-We Follow the Yellow Brick Road

When I woke up, Percy, Nico and I dragged Lyssan and Alyssa into the nearest supply closet. Which only felt extremely strange. I'd like to say that I've never had to do that before or do it ever again.

We switched trains at Lincoln, Nebraska and hopefully left the two demi-gods far behind. We couldn't afford to have them catch up to us. The train was headed for Keystone, Nebraska. The people on the train with us were chatting with each other buzzing with excitement. I wondered what it was all about. Most of them were in their late forties and they all look like history teachers, with very conservative well kept clothes.

I tried to catch as much of their conversations as I could but I could only understand fragments of their conversation.

"I hear that Lincoln was the most well done," said one woman to her husband.

That sentence, being taken out of context, was really strange. Was their a famous wax museum nearby or something?

Then I heard a man in full hiking attire say, "It must have taken them forever to carve out all of that limestone."

I finally got it.

We were headed straight for Mt. Rushmore.

I poked Nico he looked at me his eyes asking the question, "What's up?"

"It seems as if we might have to take a bit of a detour."

"Why?" asked Percy.

"The train is going to Mt. Rushmore."

"Oh, Annabeth would kill to be here right now," said Percy.

"But she's not here," I spat out of frustration, the tiredness getting to me, "Sorry," I murmured.

"It's fine, all of us are tired. But do you mind if I stopped to get some pictures for her?" he asked.

"You brought a camera?" I asked.

"No, but I bet they have some cheap disposable ones in the gift store."

"Okay sure, I guess it would be kinda cool to see it anyways."

The bus dropped us off at the entrance to the park. Tour guides were politely yelling, "United Historical Tour Group this way, come with me!" and other things like that.

I never really got the concept of a tour, I guess you learn about the history of the place, but that would probably bore me to sleep. I would probably end up wandering down the paths and ending at the gift store. I've noticed that all roads lead to the gift store.

Confirming my last thought the end of the pathway we were following lead to a large loop. In the front most area of this loop was, of course, the gift shop.

I didn't dare enter it, I'd go in empty handed and somehow walk out with loads of candy, a new shirt, and a stuffed animal or two. I remember Percy telling me all heroes had weaknesses, mine would probably be stuffed animals. Their huge shiny black button eyes, and furry little faces just strike me to the core. They call my name in sweet little voices, "Lea, come pick me up and snuggle me to your face."

I wondered if that was part of my dad being a Oneiroi, sleep god, the fact that I couldn't resist anything that seems to lull me into sweet dreams.

Percy awoke me from my daze when he loped out of the store, carrying at five dollar orange and black camera. He began to anxiously twist at the dial-thing, which made a extremely annoying clicking noise, like someone zipping and unzipping their jacket repeatedly.

As we walked in silence past the Restaurant I inhaled the warm salty smell of French fries. Suddenly my stomach growled, no, that's an understatement, my stomach roared. I clutched my belly. When was the last time I had eaten? I had a few crackers on the train, but the last full meal I had was back in Columbus with Thalia and Jason.

Percy turned to Nico and I, "You guys up for some good old fashioned snack bar food?"

"I think it's about time," said Nico.

"Totally," I agreed.

We found a table and Percy dug around in his backpack for a while until he found our money stash. He frowned when he saw it.

"Only fifty dollars left," he said sounding troubled.

Sounded like plenty to me. That's all I get for my birthday and that lasts me about six months.

Percy saw my expression and said, "Train tickets are about thirty dollars, each."

That was quite a shock to me, not only that we were nearly broke but the fact that train tickets were so expensive. I guess I never really had a reason to be concerned about money before.

We all ordered cheeseburgers, which disappeared into our stomachs after about two minutes. I refrained from letting out a satisfied burp. It only cost us eight dollars, which Percy said was good for National park snack bar food. We sat, content for the next few minutes and then departed from out table.

After squinting at a map for a few minutes Percy led us down the "Nature Trail" which was just a paved cement pathway that wound through a field and a small pine forest. Well the forest was small, the pines on the other hand were gigantic, almost as big a Thalia's tree. They must have been hundred of years old, preserved by the National Park Foundation. I listened in to one of the tours, the lady was saying something about how the workers here back when they were carving the stone almost wiped out all of the forest, using it for lumber. Only then did I begin to noticed the multiple, half-decomposed stumps. She then went on about how dedicated people here nowadays are to preserving the naturally historical place. My mind began to drift after that.

Nico actually looked pretty interested and I could tell by his expression he was storing all of this info in his vast mental library. Percy, was a whole another story, he was looking up in the trees looking at the various colorful birds, completely oblivious to everything else.

Under all of the fighting and valiance, I could see how innocent he really was. Like a ten year old forced into being an adult for the sake of his friends and family.

We came to what Percy announced as the "Borglum Viewing Terrace" and stopped for a few minute to find out where to go next. It was much of a view at all, the trees must have grown a lot since the put it in because all I could see was the top of what looked like a giant granite wall, nothing special. But it did kind of remind me of the granite landscapes back in California. Which made my, now full, stomach yearn for home. I'd never been homesick before and it was a horrible feeling. I managed to ignore it, somewhat.

The map said that it was all a big loop from here, we could either go to our left to the amphitheater or to our right which was something called a "compressor House".

To me that sounded kind of painful, so we decided to go left.

Eventually we found the Presidential Trail, after shoving through a very large mass of people who were trying to watch a show about the flora and fauna of the area. I was tempted to stop and watch when they mentioned a Arachnid, thinking of the story Arachne. But then I realized they were just talking about a spider. I guess my brain has been hard-wired to think Greek automatically.

Twilight quickly began to form on the horizon although it was only like three o'clock the days were dramatically getting shorter and I didn't think it was just because of the approaching winter solstice.

As I was walking down the pathway, kicking my feet as I went, I let the people shove me around. Letting myself drift slowly with the crowd, riding along with their movements.

About half-way down the trail one tourist bumper into me.

"Watch it," he growled in a gruff voice. He was rushing down the Presidential Trail just like the other tourists, except he didn't really seem like a tourist or look like one. We had a scruffy dark coffee colored beard, extremely calloused hands, coated in what looked like axel grease and weirdest of all no backpack or anything. Just a hammer. Also, not that this should make any difference, he was a migit.

He glared at me and continued to shove through the crowd as I stared at him, my eyes following him through the crowd. Eventually he disappeared from site.

_Why did he have a Hammer? _,I wondered.

I decided that he probably worked for the park and was doing some sort of construction, but as I continues walking something nagged at the back of my mind.

Without really trying I began to notice, there was an abundance of migits. Like some sort of Migit convention had let out. Although I don't think there is such a thing. That seems kind of demeaning.

When I say there was a lot of migits there, I mean a lot. One out of ten people and all of them were carry strange objects. I saw two hauling two large planks of lumber over their heads. The other tourists were completely oblivious, acting as if they didn't see the little men carrying around things like buckets of nails, hammers, and screwdrivers. Some even had power tools.

I began to suspect something.

My suspicions were confirmed when I overheard one say to another, "I can't believe Lord Hephaestus is making us work overtime just because Victor fell asleep and let that demi-god take the shield."

"Yeah, stupid Victor," mumbled the other angrily, "He's always falling asleep on the job."

I stopped for a minute to think, Hephaestus? Demi-god? Chariot?

Something was seriously up.

For a second I lost the two men in the crowd, when I spotted them I rushed forward and tapped one on the shoulder.

He glared up at me, "What do you want?"

"I heard you say something about Hephaestus."

For a moment he looked panicked and then he tried to put on a suave apathetic face, "Yeah, so?"

I though for a moment about how to reply and then the words rushed out of my mouth, "Loquar in igne deus."

He looked shocked for a moment, then he looked at his friends. His friends nodded.

"Just follow us," he replied half-heartedly.

"wait a sec," I said.

I didn't know how, but I knew it would work. I placed my pinkie and forefinger on my lips, ad Henry taught me to do so many years ago, and whistled high and long.

Two seconds later Percy and Nico stumbled through the crowd looking panicked.

"What is it, Lea?" asked Nico, clutching my wrist and looking intensely into my eyes.

"Were going to go visit Hephaestus," I said then jokingly added, "good boys for coming!" as I patted Nico on the head.

He scowled and let go of my wrist.

"You scared me," he murmured.

Apparently, whistling was demi-god code for "HELP!".

"What's going on?" asked Percy looking confused.

"These guys are leading us to Hephaestus, apparently he has some problem with a stolen chariot and sleepy guards," I said but honestly I was just as clueless as he was. But I figured if we just so happened to stumble on a god, it was less of a coincidence than it seemed like.

"Great, last time I went on a mission for Hephaestus I ended up waking Mt. St. Helens from it's dormant state."

"Oooh," I said, "that sounds bad."

Percy rubbed at his neck as if it were sore, "Yeah and it hurt a lot too."

At that moment the dwarfs began to walk away.

We hastily followed them.

After about a hundred feet the trees thinned and then the sky opened up to reveal the attraction. A huge cliff of pure granite stretched up and out in all directions. Carved into it face were the faces of the four presidents. They were giant, and I mean giant; you could park a bus up Lincoln's nose. Although I don't think you'd want to try.

While I was bust staring at the monument and Percy was rapidly clicking away with his camera, I didn't notice the two migit men ditching us until Nico dragged me and Percy off the trail after them.

They led deep into the forest on the side of the rock face, I tripped over a "Do not step on the plants" sign, which I found extremely ironic as a collection of dwarfs tromped across the grass.

After the Presidential trail was out of sight the dwarfs collected around a small door way in the side of the rock. It looked like a management tunnel, dark and clammy with dim yellow lights.

We were shoved through the doorway and into he tunnel, about twenty feet into there was a cross road. Each path led off in a different direction, and the small cobblestones that made the floor, were a different color for every direction. It must be how they navigated this underground labyrinth.

The main dwarf that had led us here turned to me, "Just follow the pathway made out of the sulfuric compound blocks till it ends," he said pointing to my right.

"Wait a second," a said, "did you just tell me to follow the pathway made out of the sulfuric compound blocks?"

"Yes."

"Okay," I said exasperated, shaking my head, "A small man telling me to follow the yellow brick road," I sighed, "That is so normal to me now."

He didn't reply, clearly not understanding my allusion. He just walked away in the opposite direction.

Percy chuckled and sighed, "you know of all of the strange situations I've been in, this one tops the charts."

He weaved his arm into mine so that we hooked at the elbow, "Come along Lea, were off to see Hephaestus, the most ugly god of them all!" he cried in a sing-song voice and we began to skip down the pathway. Half-screaming, half-singing, "We're off to see the wizard," and basically embracing our strangeness.

Nico just jogged behind. I wasn't sure if he was just too embarrassed to sing or if he didn't know the song.

After about five minute straight of skipping we were exhausted and our voices were sore so we slowed to a fast walk.

The hallway was dimly lit and eerie. Our shadows stalked us down the path flickering and disappearing completely at moments, which made me feel like Peter Pan. Today was just a fairy tale, wasn't it?

I nearly ran into the door that blocked our path. I would have if I didn't hear Percy thud into it before me. I placed me hand on it, and it began to glow, illuminating our faces. The door was made of steel clearly, because it was beyond solid, but was plated with copper. It was at least twenty feet tall, designed for giants. Intricate designs coated the front, gears and levers twisting around the handle in some strange lock.

Percy rapped a few times on the metal and then rubbed his knuckles as if they were sore. Nobody opened the door, it just stood there clearly the only thing blocking us from our destination. Nico, Percy and I tried knowing a few more times.

I looked at the lock more carefully.

"It's triggered but something, some sort of key, but not a tangible key, something like a finger scan," I said, tracing my fingers along a large metal dome that emanated from the door.

"Fire," said Percy, "only fire can open it. That's one of the gifts of Hephaestus."

"So any of you guys here, secretly a firebender?" I asked.

They both shook their heads.

"Well there is only one thing left to do," I said shrugging.

"YO HEPHAESTUS, OPEN UP!" I yelled.

For a few minute there was silence then the clicking and whirring sounds of gears turning. The doors glided open to reveal the ugliest and tallest man I have ever seen.

He was teen feet tall, scruffy beard, beady eyes, and bits of fire decked out his curly black mass of hair highlighted the creases in his face. I could believe this is what Ava's dad looked like.

"Hmmph," he said to me, "feisty."

Then he limped back into the room on the other side of the door. I took that as his way of saying "Here come inside, what can I do for you?"

He began to work on a small golden cell phone, his fingers were nimbly moving over the back of it, curling wires and poking at the different little button things, that I have no idea what they are called or what they do, but he looked sad only half interested in his work.

"Sir, "said Percy.

Hephaestus glanced up at him, "Hmm, oh hello Percy," he said awkwardly, "you've grown."

I rolled my eyes, I could tell he was trying to be social but he was utterly failing at it. I've seen cats be more social. Poor Ava and Leo, Christmas dinner must be really awkward.

I slam both my hands down on the table to get his full attention, for some reason I despise the gods, all of them, "I hear you had a shield stolen, sounds like a big deal, do you want us to get it back for you or not."

His eyes widened in shock.

"Yes," he said, "I fear I cannot do it myself for I pity the thief too much. I cannot bring myself to punish my own child, it was my fault for neglecting them."

Oh gods, one of his own children stole from him. Why? Revenge, attention, or was it something else, some other motive? And Who? Ava? No. Leo? Of course not.

"How do we catch them?" I asked, "make it brief."

He glanced around the room, " The thief is lost in the tunnels, I knew you were coming so I set up a navigation device. It follows the footsteps of the thief using radar technology," he pointed to a completely gold, completely awesome sand crawler.

I readjusted my bag on my shoulder, "We'll be back soon, anything else we need to know?"

Hephaestus shook his head.

"Percy you drive," I said nodding to Percy then I strutted over and flung myself into the passenger seat and strapped my self in. Percy and Nico followed suit. Etched into the side of the metal bars was _Speed Daemon X, _the obvious name for the crawler.

Percy revved the engine, I could feel the godly power rippling through the leather seats. This would be nothing like flying over the sand dunes in Oregon. It would be better. Faster.

If front of us a garage door opened. Percy slammed his foot on the petal and we roared off into the tunnel. The _Daemon_ flew down the hallway, I could see Percy's ADHD working over time as he tried to calculate which way to go. He was set in super speed; flicking the knobs and levers, adjusting level, changing gears. He clearly knew what he was doing. Leaving me to enjoy the ride.

Imagine the fastest roller coaster you've ever been on, now multiply that speed times twelve. Everything was a blur and the car hummed and vibrated as we accelerated. My eyes watered and my face felt as if it were peeling off, so in other words I was having the time of my life. Nico on the other hand looking seasick, he was a lot paler than usual. I only glanced at him for a second because my head was whipped back into the head rest as Percy punched on another dose of speed. I glanced at the dashboard, 159 mph. It read, but of course it felt like we were going faster. I watched as it steadily rose from there up through the hundreds finally topping off at 372 m ph. Was that even physically possible. I don't think it is for mortals, but of course I get to do the cool stuff in life.

All of the sudden we screeched to a halt, and I realized something, the Daemon. It was quiet, very quiet. The only noise it made was a constant humming but other than that the only sound I heard during the entire ride was the wind whistling in my ears.

I turned to Percy, "Let's do that again," I said grinning.

He laughed silently, then put a finger to his lips, "Twenty paces. Let's go see who our thief is."

We left our bags in the car and drew our swords. We crept slowly down the hall I made I conscious effort to let my feet fall, toe, heel, toe, heel.

Not far down the tunnel I saw the flickering light of a torch.

Who uses torches these days, I mean, seriously?

That's just medieval, and stupid.

I looked at Percy he looked back at me and we nodded, I then did the same to Nico.

Then we sprinted forward, my converse still didn't make a sound as they hit the floor, except a small squeaking as the rubber hit the rocks.

I was fastest, I always have been lean and light on my feet.

As the flame drew closer I remembered what my old guy friends Jeremy had taught me back when I lived in Auburn. Aim for the waist.

Then my body made contact.

I heard a strangled scream and an Ummph as we hit the hard packed floor.

"Games over buddy, give me the shield."

"Please," he groaned, "My ribs."

I pressed my sword to his neck but let him stand up.

I let the torch burn out of the ground.

I spun the boy around to face me.

He was about my age fifteen at most. Deep tan skin and puppy dog brown eyes and choppy cut milk chocolate brown hair. He was cute. I reminded me of a chocolate Labrador. But there was something strange about him, he looked frail and tired, he also had multiple scars and burn marks. Tears streamed down his cheeks. I had to pressure myself not to crumble, he looked so innocent.

Percy caught up to me the second he saw the boy he mouth dropped open and he looked as surprised as if I'd just smacked him in the face, "Jake?"

"Percy," said the boy.

Then the boy turned to me, "Please whoever you are, I didn't want to. She made me."

"Who made you steal from your dad?" I demanded clutching at his collar fiercely.

"The woman to woman in the stars," he sputtered, "Please, please, she threatened my sister. She threatened Victoria."

"What?" demanded Percy.

Nico materialized behind me, he looked shocked too, I heard him mouth , "Jake?"

The boy began to sob uncontrollably now, tears salty tears rolling down my wrists, I only caught fragments of what he was trying to say, "she threatened horrible things. I could let her do that to Victoria. I could let her hurt my baby sister. Vicky is harmless. I couldn't. I couldn't…."

"Lea, let him go," instructed Percy, "I believe you Jake. I know how much you love Victoria."

Jake gazed up at Percy his eyes as big as drachmas, huge and gracious.

I let go of my hold o his collar and he drew in a sharp quavering breath.

"Please help me," he managed.

"Give me the shield first," is aid, "and then I'll do all that I can."

He reached into his pocket and the pulled out what looked like the lid to a basic Kerr jar.

He placed it in my palm.

"What in Hades?" I exclaimed, "You're not serious are you?" Hephaestus sent us after this dinky little thing?"

Jake slid his finger around the rim, and I watched in awe as I spiral out into a gigantic disk bigger than your average umbrella. I dropped it with a loud clang.

Jake stifled a weary laugh and then ran his hand along the rim again. It curled back into the pocket mirror sized trinket.

I put in my back pocket.

"Let's go get this back to your dad," I said, "and then I'm going to have a nice little chat with Nyx."


End file.
